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Nora Fatehi was still establishing herself in the Indian entertainment industry when she appeared as the featured dancer in the song “Dilbar,” for 2018’s Satyameva Jayate. The music video was a massive hit and currently has over a billion views on YouTube, but Nora did not get paid for it. In a recent conversation with Rajeev Masand at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, Nora revealed that she was about to pack her bags and leave India when she was offered “Dilbar,” as well as the song “Kamariya,” from Stree. She told herself that this was not the time to get paid, but to prove herself, even though she was in desperate need of money.
Nora said that she shot for “Kamariya” first, and worked on “Dilbar” just two weeks later. She said that she was determined to do these songs on her own terms, but didn’t get paid. “When I met the creators of these two songs… which I never got paid for, by the way, I did them for free. And I did them for free because I said that it’s not the time for me to make money, right now is the time for me to prove myself and to make a name, and to work with credible people,” she said.
Nora said that she saw Satyameva Jayate, headlined by John Abraham, and Stree, which was being produced by Dinesh Vijan, as “credible” opportunities. “All these things made more sense than to actually make money at that time, even though, trust me, I needed it. I needed money, but I was like, ‘It’s okay, let’s prioritise this first’.”
Nora said that she wanted to push the envelope with both songs. “When I sat with those filmmakers, the first thing I said is, ‘Look, we can make this into an item song and we can just look hot and sexy and end of story, or we could change the game and make this more into a dance-oriented visual, a dance-oriented experience where people don’t have to be uncomfortable to watch it with their families and kids. They can watch it and be like, ‘Oh, what dance style is this?’, ‘Look at the hook step, that’s crazy, I want to try it’,” she said and added that most “girls” who appeared in such songs “kind of want to show a bit of skin and then boom, the song is still going to be a hit.” She continued, “You don’t really need to push yourself with the choreography but I had that requirement that it has to be heavy on choreography.” Nora said that she even trained the dancers on “Dilbar” for a week so they could match her steps.
She revealed that the blouse she was given for “Dilbar” was a too tiny. and she had to put her foot down and ask for a different one. “When they brought me the blouse, it was too tiny and I had to put my foot down. I said, ‘Guys, I cannot wear this. Don’t oversexualise me. I get it, it’s a sexy song, we are all inherently sexy, but we don’t have to be vulgar about it’. In the morning, when we were about to shoot the song they had to make a new blouse,” she said, and added, “They had to reconstruct the new blouse that made me comfortable. To some people, it still looks over sexy maybe, but for me, it was whatever I was comfortable with compared to what they were going to give me.”
In the same chat, Nora said that right before shooting these songs, she was struggling to pay rent and didn’t have money to eat. “I went through a phase where I was so skinny and borderline anorexic because I didn’t have money to eat much,” she said, and shared that she was with a modelling agency who “exploited” her and did not pay her dues. “We were really exploited as foreign models, and I didn’t have money to pay rent, to be honest,” she said.
“Dilbar” was a part of Satyameva Jayate, which was directed by Milap Zaveri, and produced by Bhushan Kumar’ T-Series and Nikkhil Advani’s Emmay Entertainment. “Kamariya” was a part of Amar Kaushik’s Stree, which was produced by Dinesh Vijan, and Raj and DK.
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