Bengaluru Trio’s Bharatnatyam Spin on ‘50 Shades of Grey’ Tune

The two-minute video features three Bharatnatyam dancers, and has already crossed over 2 lakh views.

Screengrab from Bengaluru trio’s Bhratnatyam fusion. (Photo Courtesy: Youtube/Priya Kumar)

Fusion appears to be the flavour of the season. We’ve seen many a mash-up of our favourite Kollywood or Bollywood songs with popular English numbers. But here’s a YouTube video that has now gone viral, perfectly blending classical Bharatnatyam steps to Ellie Goulding’s hit song ‘Love me like you do.’

Uploaded in November 2015, the two-minute video featuring three Bharatnatyam dancers went viral only recently, crossing over 2 lakh views. The Bengaluru based dancers are Priya Varunesh Kumar, Pramita Mukherjee, and Sandhya Muralidharan.

Priya Varunesh Kumar, the founder of Piah dance company, revealed that the video was shot at a gated community in Marathahalli in Bengaluru.

While Goulding’s video features scenes from the film ‘50 shades of Grey’, 28-year-old Priya admits that she hadn’t watched the original before coming up with the Bharatnatyam dance cover.

When I came across this song, more than anything else, what caught my attention were the beats of the song. I hadn’t watched the video then, and I believe that helped me in treating the song without any preconceived notions.

Priya Varunesh 

Although fusion is a first for the three dancers, they feared the attempt would come with its fair share of criticism, particularly from Bharatnatyam purists, who hail the virtues of the classical form. However, when the video went viral, Priya and her friends were overjoyed that it had been so well received by the public.

Calling it “a random attempt”, Priya says the positive responses to the video also indicate the immense scope for fusion dance and that people are open to such experimentation.

Motivated by the response to the video, Priya has choreographed and shot another fusion dance number, this time to Justin Timberlake’s song ‘Can’t stop the feeling’, which will be uploaded soon.