On International Women's Day, celebrating female choreographers, from Farah Khan to Kruti Mahesh

Women also play a crucial role in film industry, and not just those in front of the camera, but also those working behind the camera. Cinema and dance numbers do go hand in hand, and making those dance numbers grand, are the so many women in the field, who have set a benchmark, and keep achieving more.

This Women’s Day, we decided to celebrate the female choreographers and their work, and continue to do. The testimony to their work is the National Film Awards that they’ve won.

Here’s looking at five such female choreographers:

Laxmibai Kolhapurkar

Laxmibai won the first ever National Film Award for Best Choreography in 1992 for her song in the Marathi film Ek Hota Vidushak. And not only that, she was also the first female choreographer to win the award in the country.

The late choreographer has given Bollywood a number of hook steps that have stayed with us forever - right from ‘Dola Re Dola’ from Devdas to her choreography in the Tamil movie Sringaram, and the much-loved song ‘Yeh Ishq Haaye’ from Jab We Met. One of Hindi cinema’s most effervescent actresses was handed a lifeline by the song Ek Do Teen from Tezaab. It was choreographed by Khan, and performed with elan by Madhuri Dixit.

Kruti Mahesh

Kruti, along with Jyoti Tomar, won the National Film Award for her choreography for the Padmaavat song ‘Ghoomar’. We have seen the beauty that this song has exuded and the popularity that it gained, and due credits to the duo for the same. In fact, Kruti might be headed for her second award as her most recent song from Gangubai Kathiawadi, ‘Dholida’, has won her immense applause and continues to be the talking point. Other songs she has choreographed for include ‘Ek Dil Ek Jaan’ and ‘Holi’ from the same film, and ‘Garmi’ from Street Dancer, among others.

Farah Khan

Farah won a National Film Award for Koi…Mil Gaya song ‘Idhar Chala Main Udhar Chala’, and we all know just how popular that got with everyone.

Vaibhavi Merchant

Vaibhavi won an award for ‘Dholi Taro’ from the movie Hum Dil Dek Chuke Sanam, in 1999, and we all know what an amazing song it turned out to be. Merchant, has to her credit, some popular songs including ‘Ainvayi Ainvayi’, ‘Kajra Re’, among others. She has also been a judge on various television dance reality shows like Nach Baliye 3, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (season 3), Zara Nach Ke Dikha 2, and Just Dance.

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