Nora Fatehi started off as an actor over a decade ago but soon became synonymous with ‘item songs’ in the film industry. Her recent return to acting with ‘Crakk’, ‘Madgaon Express’ and the upcoming film ‘Be Happy’ has made the audience rediscover the actor in her. She claims she’s still open to doing dance numbers in movies, but not by compromising on her acting career.
In an interview with ‘BBC Asian Network’, she said, “I stopped being so sensitive. I stopped crying about things because I was a crier. I’d be hurt by rejection, by doors not opening, by gossip people would say about me really, really hurt me. Suddenly, I realised, ‘Oh my god. These things don’t matter because if you say no to me; if you don’t give me an opportunity, then I’ll make those opportunities myself. I have the resources. I can talk. I’m smart. I can sell myself. I don’t need anyone else to do that for me. I stopped relying on people. I stopped relying on agencies, producers and directors. Some of them would come to me and say, ‘Hey, can you do a song for a film of mine as a favour and we’d promise you a role in our next one’ and they would never do that. You know how many directors have done that to me and they disappeared. So now, I’ve stopped relying on them. I’ll do it if I want to. I don’t want anything in return. And that’s how I’m rolling.”
Nora added that she’s busy shuttling between Dubai and India for work. “I don’t take breaks. I don’t even sleep. I don’t have a personal life. I don’t even eat. No, I’m not going anywhere. This is the spicy side of me. But I know what’s going on. They’re waiting for me to turn my back and go, ‘Fill up that void!’ I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to do Bollywood. I’m going to do my international music. Leave it for the little kids? No way,” Nora added. She explained that she didn’t do any songs for a year because she was busy filming her last three movies.
“A lot of girls in the industry think I’m arrogant. But I’m not. I’m just real and I’m confident. I know what I bring to the table. If I don’t know anything, I at least know how to do these songs. There’s a way of doing them. There’s a way to perform. There’s a presentation involved. There’s a way of executing the choreography of these songs. Trust me, they’re good. They do films too. And I have a lot of respect for some of them because they’re my seniors, right? They do films and kill as main leads. And then they come and so songs and they’re allowed to do both. When I do songs and I want to do main leads, they make it so difficult for me. So, this is where my spiciness comes from. Because I know what it is. It’s not fair. So, my logic is, ‘Okay cool, everyone should be allowed to films and songs because artists are multi-dimensional’. But it should be fair for everybody,” she added.