Vaibhavi Merchant, who choreographed the song Dhindhora Baje Re in Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh’s film Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani has won the National Award for Best Choreography.
Now, in an interview, she expressed her joy and excitement while also remembering her first every National Award at the age of 21.
Vaibhavi Merchant on receiving second National Award
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Vaibhavi Merchant expressed, “I won my first National award when I was 21, and now I’m getting it after years and I’m now 49. The first time when I won it, I did not know the magnanimity of that award because I was too young. I was working nonstop and then you start to miss it. Then I was really hoping that I should be doing something substantial for me to deserve that award again.”
She continued to say, “For me, this National Award is extremely important. I’m still dealing with the shock that I’ve actually won this after all these years, and I’m only grateful for this feeling that I’m feeling right now. I don’t know if I would be so happy to get it on an item song honestly, which is what the norm is. It’s a very populist mindset of giving the award to a popular item song than the choreographies. So, this time I’m happy that the craft of the song was given an award and not a popular song.”
Vaibhavi speaks about the song
Speaking about the award-winning song Dhindhora Baje Re, she mentioned, “Dhindhora, for me, became something very unique. Right before that song, a lot of people called me even for Dola Re Dola, the Kathak version between two male performers. So many classical Indian male performers came up to me and told me how happy they were with the way we did it. The fact that I made Ranveer Singh and Tota Roy Chowdhury, who are not classical performers, look like that, they were very impressed.”
71st National Film Awards
The 71st National Film Awards were announced today at a press conference. It was held at the National Media Centre in New Delhi. Before announcing the list of winners at 6 PM on August 1, the jury submitted its report to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State L Murugan at 4 pm. The awards distribution ceremony will be held later.