On my pinboard - Ashley Lobo

Ashley Lobo has choreographed over 25 films with actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik
Roshan. Ashley has been involved with theatre and dance for over 30 years. Some of his theatrical choreographies include ‘A Passage to Bollywood’, ‘Jhumroo’, ‘Kingdom of Dreams’, ‘About Nothing’, ‘Romeo and Juliet in Technicolor’. He developed the ‘Prana Paint’ technique, which is a unique approach that explores movement through connectivity, yoga, breath, and touch. This has put Ashley on the international radar.

Dancer
Bob Fosse

“He is a choreographer-dancer. I like his style of dance, that is minimal. He barely moves his body but yet says so much. He is like Govinda. Closer home,
I look up to Saroj Khan. I admire her work a lot. She is a perfect marriage
of composition, steps, emotion, narrative and camera.”

Actor
Al Pacino

“Al Pacino is my favourite actor. I got hooked to his films after watching ‘Scarface’ and ‘Godfather’. He is not naturally good-looking but there is
something special about him. I have watched all his movies. In Bollywood, I like
Amitabh Bachchan. I grew up watching films like ‘Deewar’, ‘Parvarish’ and
‘Trishul’. I like him from his ‘angry young man’ days. This is one of the other
reasons why I also like Al Pacino. They are very similar.”

Travel
Goa

“My profession allows me to travel a lot. Though it is mostly work related, I
squeeze in time to travel on my own. My favourite goto destination would
be Goa. I am a hippie at heart. There are some parts of the northern beaches that give me energy and peace of mind and help me get out of my usual commercial- creative world. It is a quiet getaway where I can meditate and relax. Apart from Goa, I like travelling to London. It is a melting pot of different cultures and I feel I belong to that place, even when I am an outsider. It has got that welcoming vibe.”

Cuisine
Italian

“I eat anything under the sun. Street food is my weakness. If there is ‘Pani Puri’,
‘Samosa’, ‘Chaats’ or ‘Chole Bhature’, I am sorted and happy in life. But in a restaurant, it would definitely be pasta. I love Italian and authentic Chinese cuisine too. I usually head to ‘Don Giovanni’ in Juhu and ‘Ciao Bella’ in Goa for Italian food and for Chinese, it is ‘Royal China’ in Bandra and ‘Golden Dragon’ in the Taj Mahal Palace.”

Author
Paulo Coelho

“I am not much into fun reading. I prefer books on poetry and philosophy. ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho and ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran are my all-time favourites. Both these authors tell us about life very beautifully. They don’t preach yet let you understand about yourself very spiritually.”money.”

Inspiration
Parents
“My biggest inspiration has to be my parents. My father taught me simplicity and integrity, and my mother taught me work ethics like ‘if you don’t have time, you make it’. My parents have given me the freedom to do what I wanted to do. They trusted me when I chose dance at a time when it was not seen as an ideal career decision. In fact, they sent me to Australia to learn dance with their hard-earned money."