Smita Poojary (DNA; September 16, 2019)

Nora Fatehi has so far been famed for her sexy dance moves, whether in Dilbar (Satyameva Jayate) and Kamariya (Stree) in 2018 or Saki Saki in Batla House this year. However, in the John Abraham-starrer, she has also been noticed for acting. The 27-year-old believes that her supporting roles and dance numbers in Bollywood have helped her in getting the roles that she always wanted to play. She says, “Everything has a chain reaction and is connected. Whatever I’ve done, whether films as a supporting actress in Roar: Tigers of the Sundarbans (2014) or Crazy Cukkad Family (2015), reality shows like Bigg Boss 9 (2015) and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 9 (2016) or music videos such as Naah with Hardy Sandhu, put me on the map slowly but surely. I don’t regret anything. I feel everything that I did really helped my journey.” Right enough, she has a biggie like Street Dancer 3D with Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor in her kitty. “It’s an emotionally-driven story with hardcore dancing and I’m one of the leads,” Nora says to drive home the point.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Working in the Remo D’Souza directorial has been a mind-blowing experience, albeit one with a lot of sweat and blood. “I had to do some dance forms that I’d never attempted before. As an artiste, I have grown a lot in the last six months and learned so many things that I didn’t know before. Being on-set, with everyone, was a refreshing experience. It felt like I was back in high school. I will not forget the experience for a long time,” she avers.

WORKING WITH VARUN AND SHRADDHA
In the movie, Nora shares screen space with two of the biggest actors of the new generation, Varun and Shraddha, who are known for their dancing skills. The Dilbar girl says about the two, “Varun and Shraddha were extremely accepting and supportive of me. They took me under their wings and made me feel like family. I would lose patience with myself if I didn’t get a move right, if I forgot the choreography or due to stress, ended up giving too many takes and beating myself up as an artiste. Sometimes, Varun would teach me how to calm down and be patient. He would say, ‘It’s okay even if you need too many takes or mess up with the choreography’.”

She shared great camaraderie with all her co-stars as well. She informs us, “As we suffered a lot of physical pain, we would do a lot of masti to ignore it and stay positive. There were a lot of pranks on the sets.”

FILMS AND SONGS NOT SEPARATE 
The actress-dancer doesn’t believe in films and songs being different things. “Movies have tracks and the ones I’ve featured in have been in films. Of course, my goal is to be a versatile artiste and to be able to do films — songs as well as music videos,” she states. As far as reality shows go, she points out that she has passed the phase of being a contestant and would now like to be seen as a judge in them. “I’m not ready to be a judge right now. I still have so much to learn and grow as an artiste. But one day, when I’m a proper mature artiste, I’d love to take up that role,” says she.

UPCOMING PROJECTS
Going forward, Nora wants to do something where she can showcase her dancing as well as acting abilities. “I’m looking for performance-oriented roles, even if it has a dance number, as long as there is substance and depth to the character,” she concludes.