A Coimbatore-based choreographer has released a music video he made with his students as a tribute to cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the team led by him in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
B. Madhan, who has been running a private dance school in R.S. Puram for 11 years, said he had been a fan of Mr. Dhoni for over a decade. “We wanted to do something like this during the last IPL, but, unfortunately, CSK did not perform well at that time,” he said.
Having wanted to do the music video for this IPL season, Mr. Madhan roped in his students Nighil Shiv and Shaarodh J. Thumati to handle the lyrics and music composition respectively, while he choreographed the dance sequences. The music video titled “Merattal” features seven dancers including Mr. Madhan wearing CSK's iconic yellow jerseys. The seven dancers signify Mr. Dhoni's jersey number, he noted.
Having prepared for the song for nearly six months, the 32-year-old Mr. Madhan said that the team ran into issues due to the COVID-19 restrictions. “The parents of my students were initially hesitant to send them for the video shoot due to the COVID-19 situation,” he recalled. Upon fixing the location for the shooting on a private school campus at Kalapatti, he recalled that the team began the shooting early in the morning, so that the school’s functioning was not disturbed.
With the shoot wrapping up earlier in April, the music video was released on various social platforms on Sunday. The comments and responses have been encouraging so far, Mr. Madhan said.
On whether CSK will bag the IPL trophy this season, he said “Definitely, CSK will win this time. Players like Suresh Raina and Sam Curran are in good form this season. Whatever Dhoni does will be correct”.
