Katrina Kaif Is A Trained Kathak Dancer; Can Do 800 Chakkars in One Go

Kathak master Veeru Krishnan has also acted in many films and was seen in comical roles in movies like Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke, Akele Hum Akele Tum, Raja, Dulhe Raja, Mela among others. He also acted in Dharmesh Darshan's Raja Hindustani with Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor. Veeru says that it was Dharmesh who shared his contacts with Katrina and asked her to contact him. "She wanted to learn dance and so she called me in 2003. Uss waqt unki who film Boom flop ho chuki thi. She was new to the industry and wanted to get her basics in dance right. And what better than Kathak to do that. Kathak is the base of any dance. Once you learn Kathak you can do any kind of dancing from Western to Bollywood," says Veeru.

Veeru recollects that Katrina being a firang took one whole month to become familiar with the Indian traditional form of dancing. But she picked up so fast that in three months she became an expert with the chakkras.

Those familiar with Kathak know that the dance form has a technique of chakkars', a 360 degree spin. The dance master says that in the traditional form, normal Kathak dancers execute pirouetting for as many as 25 times in one go. But Katrina did a whopping 800 swirls in one go and shocked her co-dancers and even her dance master.

"Once she learnt, she was just impossible! At that time I had Priyanka Chopra, Harman Baweja as my students. Seeing Katrina do 800 chakkars in one go even they were left stunned," says Veeru.

After Katrina, Veeru is now training her sister Isabel Kaif who is looking at doing Bollywood movies. While the dance master saw the spark in Kat, he says that Isabel is not as bright as her sister. He says, "Yes, I am teaching Isabel Kathak, magar unme Katrina wali baat nahi. Katrina was on some other level only!"