Prabhu Deva, who first encountered Michael Jackson through a hired VCR and a single viewing of Thriller, went on to meet the King of Pop in Mumbai in 1996. (Photo: Express Archive) For Prabhu Deva , it started with a VCR hired for an evening and a cassette of Thriller. He was in the middle of his Bharatanatyam training when he first encountered Michael Jackson, and the collision of those two worlds, classical Indian dance and the most electric performer the West had ever produced, set the course of his entire career. “Those days, cassette deck wasn’t easily available,” he recalled, adding, “We used to hire VCR to watch films. One day, I watched ‘The Thriller’. It changed me forever.” The impact was immediate and total, recalled Prabhu Deva in an old interview with O2 India. “I wondered, ‘Who is this guy with such a unique style!’ I had never seen anyone dancing like that. The whole world was mesmerized. I wasn’t an exception.” The morning after, the consequences arrived in the dance studio.…