Kunal Om did not arrive at flamenco by accident. A professional dancer since the age of 14, his early years were spent training in jazz, Latin, Bollywood and contemporary styles. By the early 2010s, as many of his peers gravitated towards reality television and screen work, Kunal found himself asking a quieter, more personal question—where did he truly belong as an artist?
“I always wanted to stay connected to the stage,” he says. That clarity came during a performance at Mumbai’s NCPA, where the late Pandit Chitresh Das presented a fusion of Kathak and flamenco. Watching the footwork and rhythmic intensity, Kunal felt an immediate pull. “I realised this looks like tap, but it’s not tap. It’s very, very different.”
Curious and deeply moved, he sought out the artist backstage and asked to understand flamenco beyond the surface. What intrigued him was not just the technique, but its cultural roots. “He spoke to me about flamenco’s gypsy connections, where it was born, how deeply cultural it is,” Kunal recalls. Coming from a Rajasthani lineage himself, the resonance felt personal. “That connection stayed with me.”
Unlike many dance forms built around choreography set to music, flamenco revealed itself as something far more immersive. “There’s so much improvisation. It’s not about playing a song and dancing to it. Flamenco is a very dedicated, difficult, culturally rooted art form—and no one was really doing it in India.”
That realisation set him on a path that would take nearly two years of research, language learning and preparation. “I started writing to artists and schools in Spain. I realised it was challenging, so I started studying Spanish alongside.” Eventually, he packed his bags and moved to southern Spain, immersing himself in the flamenco heartlands of Granada, Jerez and Andalusia.
The early months were far from romantic. “The first three or four months were very challenging. Everything was in Spanish, everything moved very fast. I kept asking myself—have I taken the right decision?” Living and training in the caves of Granada alongside gypsy communities pushed him physically and emotionally. Yet, it was there that something shifted. “I felt very connected. It felt like a calling.”
What flamenco ultimately taught him was not performance for validation, but expression from within. “It’s dance to express, not dance to impress,” he says. That lesson was reinforced nightly as he watched artists perform with the same intensity whether the audience numbered hundreds or barely ten. “Some of them gave their best even when there were hardly any people watching. That was a huge realisation for me. It’s all internal.”
That philosophy has stayed with him, shaping his work on stage and now, for the first time, on film. Kunal makes his Bollywood debut as a choreographer with ‘O’Romeo’, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. The collaboration, he says, came from mutual respect. “Vishalji was very clear—he wanted my artistic elements. He understood artists.”
New to the language of cinema, Kunal focused on what he knew best. “I concentrated on the art, the choreography, the design of movement.” One of his key contributions was training actor Avinash Tiwary, who plays a bullfighter in the film. “Flamenco has a lot of influence from bullfighting. We did a lot of one-on-one work—watching videos, studying the culture, building his body language.”
He credits Avinash’s openness for the depth that emerged. “He broke himself down to zero and said, ‘Put me into the culture.’ Not superficially.” Flamenco music, guitar and singing became tools for character-building, helping translate emotional states into physical presence on screen.
For Kunal, maintaining authenticity—especially while blending forms—is non-negotiable. “In India, the line between fusion and dilution is very thin,” he says. With Kathak, the meeting point is rhythm and footwork. With Rajasthani folk and Sufi music, it’s the soul of the singing. “Sometimes, when you hear a flamenco singer or a Rajasthani folk singer, you can’t immediately tell the difference. That depth is what drives me on stage.”
He remains careful about where he draws boundaries. “Everything stays within the boundary of flamenco. I can’t do hardcore commercial Bollywood songs.” Even when working with composers like A.R. Rahman, it’s the percussive strength and emotional intensity that guide his choices.
Collaboration, too, is deeply considered. “It’s very important who you collaborate with. They need to be powerful in their own form.” His recent collaboration with a Qawwali artist at the Kala Ghoda Festival emerged from this philosophy. “Qawwali is interactive:there’s poetry, dialogue, response. Flamenco responds to singing in a similar way.”
As for what comes next, Kunal remains grounded. “I take it one at a time,” he says. Live performances remain his first love. Films, he insists, happened organically. “This was purely for the love of Vishalji. I had no expectations.”
As the release date approaches, there is no grand anticipation, only quiet gratitude. “I am just enjoying the process. Sinking into it and being happy every day.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
