3 min readChennaiUpdated: Mar 11, 2026 08:43 PM IST
From winning Dance India Dance 2 to opening her own studio, dancer and choreographer Shakti Mohan has come a long way in the Hindi film industry. Recently, she recalled the time when she got her first choreography break with none other than Sanjay Leela Bhansali in the Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone-starrer Padmaavat (2018). Shakti also shared anecdotes about working with the taskmaster and called him “very strict.”
Speaking to Hauterrfly, she said, “My first song as a choreographer was with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It was ‘Nainowale Ne’ from the film Padmaavat. There, I freaked out because I got the chance to work with Bhansali in my first song as a choreographer.”
Shakti shared that she didn’t charge a single penny to choreograph that song. “I refused to be paid for that song. I told him that ‘I should pay you because I’m learning from you.’ It was a big deal for me. So, when he spoke about money, I said, ‘Please, mat dijiye mujhe.‘ I will always do it for free for him because you are getting to work with such a genius.”
She called Sanjay Leela Bhansali “very strict” and also admitted that people around him need to be on their toes around the filmmaker. “Yes, he is very strict. Even if somebody breathes around him, he will turn and give them a look. For three hours, people would just hold their breath and stand beside him. He has a vision of each and everything, and even if the light is dim on one leaf, he has to correct it. Everyone has to be very patient for that process.”
Talking about working with Deepika Padukone, she said, “My interaction with Deepika was directly on the set and there were no rehearsals because she was shooting all the time. We were teaching her dance steps on set. There was a dance sequence where she had to perform it on a stone in the middle of the lake while holding a bow and wearing a saree. It was so challenging. That had so many takes, but in the end, it was removed from the song, but the rest of the romantic bits were there.”
