Bollywood cliques are 'worse than high school': Nora Fatehi

Renowned for never mincing her words, actor-dancer Nora Fatehi has time and again spoken about nepotism in Bollywood and the difficulties outsiders face in making a name for themselves and rising to the top in the industry. Recently, she compared Bollywood to her high school, even noting that the latter was, in some ways, an easier environment. Nora also noted that the concept of female beauty has become somewhat homogenised because of which many women now ‘look the same’.

“My aesthetic is the same as most of the girls in our industry right now. We have started looking the same. I don’t know how that happened,” she said during a chat with film critic and journalist Rajeev Masand held as part of the 15th edition of the ‘Indian Film Festival of Melbourne’.

Nora, born and raised in Canada, continued, “When you come from outside, it’s like high school. I lived in Saudi Arabia for three years from ages 13 to 15 and I went back to Canada when I was 16. I returned in the middle of high school and people had already formed their cliques and groups. Nobody wants a new person in the middle of high school and I know how that feels. Bollywood felt like that. I was like, ‘This is Westview (high school) all over again. I have to take out my formula and see how I did it back then and try to implement it now’.”

“Bollywood is a little bit worse than high school since most of these cliques grew up together from day one. But when you’ve done it once, it feels like you can do it again.”