Nora Fatehi was asked if she wanted to be ‘the next Katrina Kaif’

Nora Fatehi struggled for many years before she found success in the entertainment industry. In a recent chat with Rajeev Masand at IFFM, Melbourne, Nora shared that when she was starting out, she met many shady people who were constantly looking to prey on vulnerable people. She shared that some of these touts told her that they would get her in touch with major production houses and since she was new at the time, she would follow them around. Nora said that this led her into many ‘scary situations’, but she learnt to deal with such ‘weirdos’ with time.

Nora said that when she first moved to Mumbai as a Moroccan from Canada, she didn’t even know if she was talking to the right people and many of them would promise to help her. Nora was 22 at the time, but she’d be more wary of them if she had the wisdom that she does now. “Now, I’d be like ‘Why am I coming with you? What do you want from me?’ Clearly, nobody does anything for free but at that time, I was like, ‘God sent this person to me’ and I followed a lot of idiots,” she said.

Nora said that even if they introduced her to the right people, they would always have some kind of expectation from her. She recalled, “It put me in really scary situations where, in the end, the person would be like ‘C’mon, what am I going to get out of this?’ and that led me into these scary situations where I either had to fight that person or it was really weird.”

After some of these experiences, Nora learnt that she can never show that she is ‘desperate’ for an opportunity, as this is what such people thrive on. She added, “That taught me not to be desperate and not to give desperate vibes because the minute you give desperate vibes. People will really use that to their advantage. So, I stopped telling people I really wanted to act. I started to change my words.”