Shekhar Kapur’s Sridevi and Anil Kapoor-starrer Mr India is one of the most iconic films made in India. Choreographer-director Ahmed Khan, who worked as a child artist in the film, opened up about his experience in an interview with Siddharth Kanan, revealing that Sridevi would bribe the kids on set with ice cream to teach her break-dancing. 

On working with Sridevi in Mr India

Ahmed recalled a day on the sets of Mr India when they were shooting a serious scene, and Sridevi broke the tension by offering all the children on set ice cream, but with a catch. He said, “We were shooting a hospital scene that follows a bomb blast where one of the characters dies. It was a serious scene. She (Sridevi) took us to one of the doctor’s rooms and offered us ice cream. She said I’m not giving you this because I like you, you have to teach me break-dancing. So we taught her some moves. That’s how our friendship began.”

He also claimed that even as a child artist, he could see how reserved Sridevi was as a person. “As everyone knows, Sridevi was reserved. I would observe that off-camera she would be reserved but once the camera began rolling, she became Seema, her character in the film, and would snap out of it once the director said cut. It was like Michael Jackson, who spoke softly but exploded on stage. We would think how did she do this? She was mahaan (great). She wasn’t friendly with us initially, but that changed,” he added.

Mr India was released in 1987 and Sridevi’s performance in the film remains memorable to this date. Her song from the film, Hawa Hawai, is still iconic.

Upcoming work

Ahmed is currently directing Welcome to the Jungle. The film has a huge star cast, consisting of Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Arshad Warsi, Suniel Shetty, Johnny Lever, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor. Previously, he directed films like Lakeer, Fool & Final, Baaghi 2, Baaghi 3 and Heropanti 2.

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