Dance like the divas

Wamiqa Gabbi, Rekha and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Set in the Hindi film industry of the '40s and '50s, Jubilee sees Wamiqa Gabbi play Niloufer Qureshi, an aspiring actor who rises through the ranks. Recently, the actor told mid-day that she took inspiration from yesteryear leading ladies, including Nargis, Madhubala and Meena Kumari, for the part (Main Madhubala banna chahti hoon, Apr 12). Yet, when it came to her performance in the peppy number, Babuji bhole bhale, Gabbi turned to the modern generation of actors. She took a leaf out of the books of Rekha, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who are known to command attention with their dancing skills.

Also Read: 'Jubilee': From Madhubala to Nargis, Wamiqa Gabbi pays homage to yesteryear stars

"Playing a character from a period drama is tricky because imitating people can come across as caricaturing them," says Gabbi. Dance numbers, she believes, offer more liberty. "The dance sequences are different, since they used to have subtle movements, with [an emphasis on] facial expressions. To get those right, I followed actresses like Rekha ji, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. I watched their songs over and over again to prepare for the track." Vikramaditya Motwane's series also stars Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aditi Rao Hydari, Aparshakti Khurana and Sidhant Gupta.