Film choreographer Saroj Khan died of cardiac arrest in the early hours of Friday in Mumbai. She had been admitted to the Guru Nanak Hospit...
Film choreographer Saroj Khan died of cardiac arrest in the early hours of Friday in Mumbai. She had been admitted to the Guru Nanak Hospital in Bandra after she complained that she had trouble breathing.
One of Hindi cinema’s most influential choreographers, the 71-year-old Khan revolutionised Hindi film dance in the 1980s, working closely with Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. Her work fetched her eight Filmfare Awards, the largest number anyone has won for choreography so far, and three National Film Awards for Dola Re Dola (Devdas, 2002), the songs of the 2006 Tamil film Sringaram, and Yeh Ishq Haaye (Jab We Met, 2008).
Mentored by Hindi film choreographer B Sohanlal, Khan brought a mix of boldness and sensuality to her creations, drawing inspiration from folk and classical dance forms for a modern Bollywood audience. As the gyrating vamps disappeared in the 1970s and Hindi film heroines began expressing themselves more freely on the dance floor, Khan’s techniques helped create stars out of Sridevi, Dixit, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Until Khan and her contemporaries broadened the scope of dance for Hindi film in the 1980s, the choreographer was not accorded much importance. In fact, the Filmfare Award for Best Choreography was instituted in 1989 and she won the...
