From spending time with Ranveer Singh to get comfortable with her on-screen Romeo before shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali, to rehearsing her Garba steps vigorously for the 5-6 garba song-and-dances that she would have to perform in Ram Leela, Deepika Padukone is one busy lady these days.

For the last one week she has been trying to master the Garba form of Gujarati dance. And it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Perfectionist that he is, Sanjay Bhansali has brought over traditional Garba dancers from Gujarat to teach Deepika and Richa Chadda the Garba in the traditional way.

Rehearsals are on every evening in Juhu, Mumbai.

Says a source, “Garba is a frenetic almost violent form of dancing. Bhansali didn’t want the filmy Garba. He wanted the real thing. So he got a couple of traditional Garba dancers from Gujarat to Mumbai to teach Deepika and Richa the real Garba.”

The only Indian style of dancing that Deepika knows is Kathak which she learnt during Om Shanti Om. Gujarati folk is totally alien to her. But she is apparently learning fast. It’s Richa with her sore knee who’s finding the going a bit tough.

Says the source, “Deepika is very athletic and very swift on her feet. So is Richa. But Richa suffered a knee injury while doing an action scene for a film called Tamanchey and had to undergo knee surgery. So the aggressive Garba steps are not doing kind things to her knees.”

Richa has now gone into intense physio-therapy to get her steps right.

Interestingly Deepika and Richa play two close friends Leela and Rasila in Ram Leela. They spend so much time together on screen that the joke within the team is that these two need to get to get into a comfort zone as much as Ranveer and Deepika.

Shweta Salve who plays a third female character in Ram Leela and is paired opposite Abhimanyu Singh. Apparently she has very intimate scenes to perform with her co-star. Neither Shweta nor Abhimanyu are reported to be shy about setting the camera on fire with their passion.