American dancer and actress Lauren Gottlieb, who started her Bollywood journey with ABCD: Any Body Can Dance and was seen in a number of Hindi films, is emotional and excited at the same time as she’s set to perform to RRR’s Naatu Naatu at the Oscars on Sunday night in LA. The song has been nominated in the Best Original Song category this year.

Talking to BT from the US, Lauren said, “I was on hold for five days. The creatives kept changing, so they weren’t able to officially confirm. I was in Paris when I gotthe final confirmation and the next thing I did was rush to LA and buy a few weeks of rehearsal clothes (laughs). Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo, who are choreographing the song for the big night, are my friends. Before I began my career in India, I was assisting them on big stage shows in Hollywood. They reached out to me with this offer. Today, when I was in the middle of rehearsals, I got emotional thinking about how much representing India at the Oscars means to me. I feel so proud and I just hope everyone feels the same when they see it.”

Ask Lauren if she’s nervous about performing on such a prestigious platform and she says, “Strangely, I’m not nervous at all! However, I do think that on the day of the show it will feel different, especially, standing on stage knowing we are live around the world. For now, I’m focused on what I need to prepare and that’s acing my dance steps, doing rounds of costume and hair/ make-up trials, and resting my body after long days of rehearsals. I just want to soak in each and every moment of this experience.”

Lauren is a big fan of RRR and also the dance number. She says, “The first time I watched the film was last year at my aunt’s house in India. We both started dancing like crazy. So, when I got the call for the Oscars, I called her up and asked her if she remembered how we danced to the song in her house and then broke the news to her that I was performing to this song on the biggest stage in the world.”

She signs off saying, “I think the odds of Naatu Naatu winning are huge. I will dance like crazy backstage if they win!”

Lauren says, “The choreographers wanted to stay as close to Naatu Naatu’s steps as possible. We had to adapt certain things to fit the stage. I spoke to the team about my experiences living and working in India and how dance is such an important part of Indian culture. On the first day of rehearsals, we learned the choreography, and on the second day, I insisted that we take the sharpness of our western style down by a few notches and dance with our heart and soul, which also meant focusing a lot on facial expressions the way we do it in India. I even insisted the male lead dancers lip sync to the song.”