Masaba Gupta reveals being inspired by Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s Oo Antava for her Kesari Chapter 2 cabaret cameo

Now while the acting and narrative is of course garnering rave reviews, a third facet which has truly taken the internet by storm is designer and actor’s Masaba Gupta’s surprise dance cameo in the film. Clips of the cabaret number, which haven’t been officially released, made their way online from the movie theatres and has everyone fawning over the multi-faceted new mom’s many talents. But what really inspired Masaba to take such a massive step outside of her comfort zone? Well it was Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s iconic Oo Antava!

During a chat with The Indian Express’ Screen, Masaba opened up how the still-raging track, quite literally had her manifest this cabaret cameo into her repertoire. As a matter of fact, she admitted finding the song even being offered to her in the first place, quite “bizarre”, but an opportunity she jumped at nonetheless, in a bid to honour her long-standing dance roots.

When asked if she was worried about Khumaari — the song — being gauged as an item number, Masaba had quite a nuanced tke to share. Looping it in to Samantha’s track, she shared, “I was very impressed with Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s Oo Antava (from Pushpa: The Rise), and I’ve always wanted to do something like that. In fact, when I saw that song, I manifested this number in my head because I wanted to do what Samantha did and I wanted the impact to be similar. I thought the song had such a strong message that it really surpassed being just another item song. If an item song is done tastefully, there’s nothing wrong in being a part of it”.

What’s the most exciting bit for Masaba then, about having her very first dance track out in the world? It’s her own journey of time! She reflects, “I actually performed this and shot it pre-pregnancy and I’m postpartum now, so it’s quite a pleasure to see something that you shot two-and-a-half years ago come to life”.

Directed by Karan Singh Tyagi, the Akshay Kumar, Ananya Panday and R Madhavan led Kesari Chapter 2 is currently running in theatres.