Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 21, 2016)

Thirty years ago, director Shekhar Kapur and his Mr India producer Boney Kapoor had selected Ahmed Khan out of over 100 children to play one of the kids in their 1987 fantasy-adventure.

The film featured Anil Kapoor as Mr India, a man who could turn invisible at will, who, with his cook Calendar, rents out a large house to provide a home for orphans. Ahmed was one of the cute kids. Boney’s own son Arjun was a year-old at the time. “Had he been older he would have been in the film,” insists Ahmed who was 11 when he faced the camera. Now 42, Ahmed is choreographing both Anil and Arjun in Anees Bazmee’s under-production, Mubarakan.

“After Mr India, I went on to choreograph Anil Kapoor in many films, including Taal, Bulandi and Badhaai Ho Badhaai. I’d bump into a young Arjun on the sets of these films but we never discussed work. We only spoke about Mona aunty (Arjun’s late mother, Mona Shourie Kapoor) or what Arjun was up to and moving out of South Mumbai,” admits Ahmed who’s delighted that after eight films and four years in the industry, Arjun is finally working with him. He is choreographing several songs for Mubarakan which unites the real-life chacha-bhatija. Arjun has a double role – a turbaned simpleton and a Londonreturned yuppie. “We started with a tricky sequence, the introduction of the two Arjuns, at a suburban-studio last week,’ informs Ahmed, who will also be directing a face-off between the two. “It was fun to make Arjun dance. He is tall, broad-shouldered, with a towering personality and once he got into the groove, the set came alive. Arjun’s dancing has a jhalak of Anil. It’s brilliant!”