Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 31, 2019)

Twenty-five years ago, “Mukkala Muqabala” from his 1994 Tamil film, Kadhalan (dubbed in Hindi as Humse Hai Muqabala) made Prabhudheva a national craze. Now, Mirror has learnt that the iconic song has been recreated for Remo D’souza’s upcoming musical, Street Dancer 3D, with Tanishk Bagchi reworking the AR Rahman original.

“It was shot during the ongoing Dubai schedule with Prabhudheva taking centrestage for a minute-long solo performance, effortlessly repeating the difficult moves in a single take,” revealed a source, adding that he was joined by the film’s lead actors, Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor who themselves have fond memories of the song and cheered enthusiastically when Prabhu grooved.

Bhushan Kumar who is producing the film with Divya Khosla Kumar and Lizelle D’souza recalls that “Muqabala” was an instant hit back in the ’90s, breaking several records, and a quarter of a century later, is still played in the clubs. “There’s a situation in the film where we see Prabhudheva showcase his dance moves and I knew we needed to bring ‘Muqabala’ back. The audience will be blown away by the choreography and will love the new version as much as the original,” Bhushan asserts.

Apart from this number, the actors have also shot some underground dance battles and will return to Mumbai for the final schedule. Mirror had earlier reported (Jan 23) that the score of the 2020 Republic Day release is a mix of original compositions, folk songs and recreations. Varun and Shraddha play dancers who have grown up in the UK. The film also features Nora Fatehi, Sonam Bajwa, Dharmesh, Shakti Mohan and Vartika Jha in pivotal roles.