SUBHASH K. JHA

IANS

DIRECTOR Abhishek Choubey is said to have asked actress Kangana Ranaut to brush up her dancing skills as they gear up to start shooting for Dedh Ishqiya with dancing diva Madhuri Dixit. Both the actresses will be seen matching steps in plenty of dance sequences in the film.

Dedh Ishqiya is the sequel to 2010 film Ishqiya, which featured Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah and Vidya Balan.

While Naseerruddin and Arshad will be reprising their roles, the female lead will be played by Madhuri.

“Music was very important to Ishqiya and so will it remain in Dedh Ishqiya, though this time the songs and music would be very different. Yes, Madhuri would be doing a lot of singing and dancing,” said Choubey.

The sequel will see Arshad and Naseer moving from Gorakhpur to Lucknow, where they will meet a highly cultured Muslim family, including Madhuri and Kangna. While Naseerruddin will be seen romancing Madhuri, Arshad has been cast opposite Kangana.

Choubey said the idea was to place Naseerruddin and Arshad’s characters in a completely different milieu.

“Repetition is death for me. I was against doing a sequel in the first place, because no matter how one looks at it, a sequel is an extension of the first film. But then when I finally decided on doing Dedh Ishqiya, I decided to put the characters in a totally different ambience,” he said.

With the film, Choubey hopes to revive the near-extinct genre of Indian cinema, known as the Muslim social.

“I want to revive that old-world Nawabi charm of ornate architecture, the tehzeeb and the adaas that we saw in Muslim socials like Mere Mehboob, Mere Huzoor, Chaudhvin Ka Chand and Nikaah,” said the director.

“Of course, the genre would be contemporised.

But the essence of the genre, the flavour of the period, its essence and grace and, most important, the decadence of that Nawabi culture would remain,” he added.