– ‘Know who had your back from day one’

DANCING sensation Nora Fatehi is proud of breaking through many stereotypes in her Bollywood career so far and has especially been battling the one where dancers are seen as incapable of acting or any other skills.
The Canadian dancer, who is also a singer, model and actress, left her country of origin and made her way to India because she said she connected with this country and its culture. And she made the bold move despite not having any friends or family there.
But as she told the popular chat show, “What Women Want,” hosted by other bombshell actress Kareena Kapoor, the move required boldness and conviction that she would’ve succeeded.
“I think there comes a point in everyone’s life where you start to search for your calling; what you were meant to do. I found myself knowing what my calling is at a very young age and I always found myself going in the direction of entertainment and arts,” Nora, who began her career with the Bollywood film “Roar: Tigers of the Sundarbans,” expressed.
But the move was definitely not without the challenges and the naysayers telling her that she could not do it. To begin with, Nora said she had to combat the simple stereotype that girls cannot travel alone unless they’re married.

The 28-year-old recalls that when she first arrived in India, one casting director told her that she would never make it because there were too many other artists like her in the country. At that point, she almost packed up her bags and left.
But the ‘Dilbar Dilbar’ dancer stood her ground. “I trained myself mentally to think positively every time I didn’t get a part…a lot of the things that I didn’t get, that I cried about, ended up being bad projects anyway.”
Nora said it is important to remember those people who were nice to you from the start of your career. “In the journey, there are some who come along and make you feel that you are not capable and that you’re nothing.

And when you do become something, they like to creep back and say, ‘hey I always knew you could do it. Sorry about that thing I said, I was tipsy.’ You need to be smart enough to filter through those people and know who had your back from day one and who believed in you from day one and you need to keep those people around you.”
She said while it is true that dancers tend to get stereotyped and don’t often progress to acting, these individuals ought to be given more opportunities because they are multifaceted; can emote without even speaking, and can make people feel feelings through their movements and eyes.
As she looks upon her success now, she said: “So many emotions rush through my head. It gives you that drive to keep moving forward. I always feel a sense of excitement because I know that somewhere, this will be someone else’s inspiration.”
Nora’s song “Dilbar” reportedly crossed 21 million views during the first 24 hours of its release on Youtube, thus making it the first Hindi song to have achieved such numbers in India.