Like mother, like son: Matching steps to viral fame
On Mother’s Day, today, the mother-son duo behind popular dance reels talk about how dancing together have brought them closer
WI feel happy when other mothers on social media tell me that seeing my dance reels brightens their day, and makes them want to try it with their kids, too. LOHITHA RAVIKIRAN, Content creator
In the lockdown there was a lot of stress, and my mum had undergone a knee surgery a year before that. But I saw how she would be the happiest while dancing. KISHAN SAMAYAMANTRY, Student
siddhi.jain@hindustantimes.com hether it’s actor Nora Fatehi’s flexible moves on Dance Meri Rani or the fast-paced footwork by actors Jr NTR and Ram Charan in Naatu Naatu (RRR), this mother-son duo can ace it all! Hyderabad-based Lohitha Ravikiran, 40, and Kishan Samayamantry, 18, have been winning hearts on social media for their energetic and creative dance reels on popular songs with millions of views.
The duo, who took to creating reels in the second Covid-induced lockdown in 2021, say that in addition to being a fun activity to take their minds off the gloomy reality, it strengthened their bond. “I’ve been dancing for as long as I can remember although I have never had any formal training. My mother taught me how to dance,” says Samayamantry, a first-year BTech student at a private engineering college in Hyderabad. He is also a contender at the K-Pop India contest — a national level dance and music competition — where he participates with his dance crew.
At home, however, dance, for him, is all about taking to the terrace to make reels with his pyaari ma. Recalling the first lockdown, he says, “All of us were stuck at home, and it was very boring. And that’s* what made us create short videos for social media. We had been dancing together for a very long time and would perform at all our family gatherings. But it was during the lockdown that we started posting the videos online. And our first reel that went viral was on Take It Off by Kesha.”
Ravikiran, an avid dancer who grew up in Visakhapatnam watching actor Madhuri Dixit Nene’s videos, recalls how “lighting was always an issue” when the duo started recording their videos inside the house. “We tried on the terrace once and it worked like a charm. So we decided to stick with it,” she says. Today, her Insta following (around 180K) is significantly higher than that of her son (around 28K), who posts solo videos of himself dancing. She feels, “It’s because of our combination. People like to see that.”
Not just being in front of the camera, but also behind the lens, they enjoy the process of finding a song to match steps on. Samayamantry shares, “My mum will find something on Instagram and send it to me on social media from the kitchen, and I would check it out while sitting in my bedroom (laughs). If we both like the song, we practise it for about 30-40 minutes before shooting, and then do a lot of impromptu takes. It takes us 15-20 attempts before a solid video is ready to be posted on Instagram.”