EXCLUSIVE | 'O'Romeo' choreographer Kunal Om: 'Couldn't choreograph anything for Shahid Kapoor, would love to work with Ranbir Kapoor'

Kunal Om, a Flamenco artist and choreographer based in India, has made his Bollywood debut as a choreographer in the Vishal Bhardwaj film O’Romeo, Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and starring Shahid Kapoor, Triptii Dimri and others, it releases in cinemas on February 13, 2026.

Kunal is among the few artists in India trained in authentic Flamenco, and the conversation focuses on bringing a niche global dance form into mainstream Indian cinema, his creative process, and the journey from stage performance to a feature film.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Kunal spoke about how O’Romeo happened, his collaboration with Vishal Bhardwaj, and his journey as a choreographer and dancer.

Edited excerpts from the interview

How did O’Romeo happen?

I was in Spain last year, in August 2025, just before coming to India, I received a call, a message from the office of Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj, the director of the Film O Romeo. And I was fortunate enough, lucky enough to get that call. It was very exciting for me as it was my first time ever getting a call from a film director, you know, and I happened to come here, I happened to meet him, I happened to meet the team. And I understood what Vishal ji actually was initially looking at as per my involvement was concerned because he was looking at someone very pure in flamenco.

And the initial idea was to collaborate with him to create Avinash Tiwari’s character. Avinash plays Jalal in the film. And, he plays a bullfighter. He’s the owner of a bullring in Spain, and plays a bullfighter. So the idea was to use flamenco, you know, to create the whole personality of Jalal, you know, train him with flamenco movements, to bring that essence of the bullfighter in him.

Because in Flamenco, there’s a lot of bull fighting, bullfighter movements and personality and character and stature and style that we use, you know, in, in. In flamenco. So that’s where it all started. And I started training with Avinash Tiwary had some really, really intense, you know, sessions with him, breaking down bit by bit with a lot of research, you know, that went into the bullfighting process with a lot of research from, from videos, from bull fighting rings, from schools. And we, before hitting the studio, we. And through this research, you know, we kind of understood the essence and the soul behind the entire bull fighting.

And later on, Vishal ji wanted to shoot an entire carnival, Spanish carnival sequence that you see in the film at a very, very important juncture, important point. And he offered me to choreograph. And I was lucky enough, fortunate enough to do that, because he found the essence and the purity in my flamenco, in my artistic journey, what I created for Avinash. And I got this entire choreography sequence for the carnival, which had a good 70, 75 dancers. And it’s a part of a scene where Avinash was also joining in.

What would you like to say about your collaboration with Vishal Bhardwaj ?

To start with, I have been lucky and fortunate enough to start my journey as a choreographer, as a film choreographer, for my first one ever with a director of such stature, Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj. Vishal Bhardwaj is someone for me, you know, he’s a gem.

He’s a gem. He’s so simple at heart, and he’s so, so authentic in his reach and his approach. And keeping that in mind, at the same time, he gives you the freedom to explore, he gives you the freedom to create to the kind of involvement that I had in the film. He gave me an open hand to create my own processes, to create my own ways of getting involved with the film, but of course, because of his, his clarity and because of his his support, I was just flowing with the process, you know, and one by one, things were falling in place. So I was, of course, in awe of the man because the personality that he has and apart from that, the legend of a director that he is because of his body of work for so many years.

Talk about your journey as an artistic journey as a dancer, choreographer, conceptualiser and creative director.

When I started dancing at a very young age from school, I was picked up from school by an ace choreographer, my guru, Dharan Das. At the age of 13 or 14, I started training with him in jazz, then I grew to train into contemporary, of course, Latin styles, rock and roll, Bollywood and other different styles as a freelancer. You know, I started dancing professionally at the age of 14 or 15 and doing various number of shows with Indian artists, with international artists, and continued dancing and being an assistant choreographer and choreographing. It has been a fantastic journey. I had no connections with art, entertainment, or any kind of godfather as such. But my gurus, they really shaped me into being a good dancer and a good artist. And I thank them.

And around 2012 is somewhere I came across flamenco in India. There was an artist, late Chitresh Dasji, who was a legend of a Kathak artist. And he brought some collaboration to India at NCPA with a flamenco dancer. And I went to see that show. Growing up, I was also a big fan of tap dancing. It always intrigued me, watching tap dance.

And of course, Michael Jackson was all our guru. He’s everybody’s guru. But tap dancing was something that I really wanted to look into. And we didn’t have any opportunity back then in India or in Mumbai, to do any kind of tap or study tap or learn tap. We are so consumed with all the jazz and the Bollywood and everything. And then I once saw the show, I realized that this flamenco looks like tap because it has the same characteristic footwork and all those things.

But it looked very different. It felt very different. And I really wanted to know what it was. So I took an appointment with the artist after the show. The next day I went to meet him. And he gave me a complete insight, you know, as to what flamenco is all about where it comes from, its origins, how the flamenco is, and a little history about it.

That actually intrigued me a lot. I started my research after that into flamenco. I almost took a year, year and a half to really, really look into flamenco, to reach out to schools, academies, institutions, artists in Spain.

During my research, I also came across the fact that flamenco has gypsy roots. And while the flamenco itself was born in Spain, undoubtedly in the south of Spain, in Andalusia. But because of the gypsy roots, we know that gypsies come from Rajasthan and Punjab in India. And I come from Rajasthan, so that really intrigued me as to why not no one’s doing or why isn’t flamenco so big in India when it has such strong roots? You know, flamenco has such gypsy strong roots. And of course, flamenco has a lot of influences of African music, of Arabic music. So flamenco is a very influenced form, you know, in its origins.

Slowly, I also grew into creating more collaborations with Sufi music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khanji, and some parts, some kind of, some music of A. R. Rahman, which I tried to create and collaborate because the music of A. R. Rahman is also very rhythmic, very musical and it really went very well for me with flamenco and my creations with flamenco. So these are the genres that I developed in the last seven, eight years.

And that’s the kind of work I do. I still continue to do my live shows. I am more focused on stage with my live audiences. That’s what I really love.

One actor and filmmaker you want to work with next?

Well, I really wish to rework with Vishal Bhardwaj because I feel that his love and passion for arts and music and dance and films is a completely different perspective. So I’d love an opportunity again to work with him.

Unfortunately on this film, I could not choreograph anything for Shahid Kapoor. And I feel that he is one artist, one dancer, one actor, who’s a complete artist, you know. So I also feel that if he does flamenco, I know, I’m sure he’ll get into the skin of it.

Apart from this, I’d really, really love to work with someone like Imtiaz Ali. I think he is another filmmaker who really is an artist in himself, you know, and I love his films and actor. I really look forward to working someday with someone like Ranbir Kapoor, because I truly feel he’s a very intense actor. And it’ll be amazing to see someone like that do some flamenco maybe, because it’s more of a surprise when a non-dancer also can do some kind of flamenco and bring out something very unique and, you know, unexpected on screen and stage. So I feel these are a few guys who can really, really, you know, do justice to flamenco.