Alia Bhatt : NO Jugalbandi Between Madhuri M’aam & I In Kalank

Over-fertile imagination or desperation to grab eyeballs? On Monday a portal screamed a headline declaring a ‘jugalbandi’ (they meant a dance competition) between Madhuri Dixit and Alia Bhatt in Abhishek Varman’s Kalank.

However speaking to me Alia very clearly states she has no dance item with Madhuri . “I dance in the film but not with Madhuri M’aam. Am I mad to dance with her?”

Alia Bhatt can’t wait for Karan Johar’s Sanjay Dutt-Madhuri Dixit-Varun Dhawan-Alia Bhatt-Aditya Roy Kapoor starrer Kalank to release on 19 April

Enthuses Alia, “It is my first multi-starrer. It was absolutely fantastic. It was one of most challenging films I’ve done so far …There is enough to do for every actor.Every character is well-etched . It is a world that I’m walking into for the first time, you know, the quintessential Hindi commercial cinema, and yet is is a story never told before, though the language is very commercial,mainstream. The characters are contemporary , though it’s a period film.”

Alia had to learn classical dancing from scratch for Kalank. “I am not very confident about my dancing. So I trained for a whole year. I spent a couple of days with the legendary Pandit Birju Maharaj learning Kathak.I am really grateful for that opportunity. It gave me a chance to hone my skills as a dancer.”

So do we get to see Alia dancing with the iconic Madhuri Dixit in Kalank?

Exclaims Alia, “Fortunately not. To my good fortune I don’t have to share the dance floor with Madhuri M’aam. But she’s standing and watching me while I dance. For me that was a reason to be nervous enough…that she was watching me dance.I’d keep pleading for her to sit in her vanity van. But of course she had to be in the shots.So imagine, I had to dance in front of one of our finest dancers of all times.”