Veteran background dancer Rubina Khan recently opened up about her experience working in Bollywood and shared interesting stories about the behaviour of actors on film sets. In a conversation, Rubina spoke about stars who treated dancers warmly, while also recalling how some actresses maintained distance during shoots.According to Rubina, actors like Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Jackie Shroff, and Mithun Chakraborty were among the most humble celebrities she worked with.“They never behaved like stars around dancers. They treated us like friends,” Rubina told Bollywood Thikana, adding that these actors would casually interact with dancers without showing any arrogance.She also had warm words for Madhuri Dixit, recalling how grounded the actress was despite being one of Bollywood’s biggest stars. Rubina shared that during one shoot, Madhuri sat on the floor with dancers, cracked jokes, and chatted comfortably with everyone.“It never felt like she was a superstar and we were just dancers,” she recalled.
‘Mamta Kulkarni and Divya Bharti had attitude in the early days’
While speaking about actresses she found difficult initially, Rubina named Mamta Kulkarni and Divya Bharti.“I won’t say badly, but some actresses were a bit arrogant in the beginning,” she said. According to Rubina, they would often ask dancers to stand a little away during shots to avoid being pushed in crowded dance sequences.At the same time, Rubina admitted that dancers themselves were quite mischievous at that age. “Sometimes we would intentionally make mistakes during takes just to irritate them a little,” she laughed.
‘We used to dance barefoot in extreme heat’
Apart from recalling actors’ behaviour, Rubina also spoke about the difficult working conditions dancers faced during the early years of Bollywood shoots.She revealed that one of the toughest shoots she ever did was for the film Prem, starring Tabu and Sanjay Kapoor.“There was a sequence where we had to keep dancing continuously in extreme heat without slippers. The ground was burning hot, and by the end of the shoot all of us had blisters on our feet,” she shared.
‘Short clothes meant double payment’
Rubina also made a surprising revelation about how dancers were paid in those days. She said costumes often determined the payment dancers received.“If we wore short clothes, we got special rates. Sometimes the payment would directly double,” she revealed.According to her, costumes with cuts, wigs, tattoos, or elaborate styling came with additional payments because the base salary for dancers was very low.Rubina also shared that when she entered the industry, she earned only Rs 175 per day. However, despite decades passing, dancers’ pay has not improved significantly.“Twenty-five years ago we used to get Rs 3500 for advertisements, and even today many productions pay the same amount,” she said.
