Turns out that hook step everyone's been reeling to has a name, and a history. Aata Sandeep, the choreographer behind Yesha Nagula from Nani and Keerthy Suresh's The Paradise, told Filmfare in an exclusive interview that the moves come straight out of Telangana's folk repertoire, specifically a blend of Pehlwan, or wrestler, stances and the region's Dharkari dance tradition.

"It's a Pehlwan and Dharkari style of dance," Sandeep said, describing forms that are typically performed at celebrations and local events rather than on a film set. Director Srikanth Odela, he said, wanted the emotion behind the style, the vibe, the royalty, the sense of physical strength, captured with some aesthetic polish rather than left raw.

Yesha Nagula was shot on Nani and Keerthy Suresh over seven days, on a special set built on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Choreographing it took Sandeep close to a week. He says the moment he heard the tune, before the lyrics were even written, he had a feeling.

"When I first heard the tune of the song, I instantly felt the vibe and believed it would be an instant chartbuster," he told Filmfare. The choreography then got built around the words, the characters and how the actors carry themselves on screen. Nani and Keerthy, by his account, picked it up clean, and the internet agrees, with fans recreating the hook step across reels since the song dropped.

A choreographer having a moment

Sandeep isn't new to this kind of attention, but 2026 has been a particularly good year for him. Back in January, he choreographed the Hook Step song for Chiranjeevi's Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu, working alongside his wife and creative partner Jyoti Raj. That song went viral too and, per Filmfare, turned into a blockbuster moment for the film. A couple of months later, Sandeep picked up a state award for Best Choreography for Gira Gira Gira from Champion.

On working with Chiranjeevi, Sandeep didn't hide the fan in him. "Working with Megastar Chiranjeevi Sir is a blessing," he said. "It's a dream come true and a once-in-a-lifetime milestone in our lives."

Asked what actually makes a hook step land with audiences at this scale, Sandeep kept it simple. Realistic movement, a beat people can't ignore, and steps that come from the hero's arc rather than sitting outside the film's logic. "I choreograph the song based on hero's character arc and the song context in the film," he explained, adding that he tries to keep the dance grounded in local flavour so it travels faster, and takes the film with it.

Whether Yesha Nagula's momentum converts into numbers at the box office is the next thing to watch, with The Paradise now leaning on the song's virality to pull audiences in through its opening weekend.