Nora Fatehi on recreating Sushmita Sen's 'Dilbar', and why Bollywood gets belly dancing wrong

On reinventing the magic that Sushmita Sen created back in the ’90s with ‘Dilbar Dilbar’ from the movie Sirf Tum (1999), Nora Fatehi said, “I feel it’s not a remake, it’s a different take on the song. It’s completely different.”

The Moroccan-Canadian dancer, who choreographed as well as performed on ‘ Dilbar'  in John Abraham’s upcoming film  Satyamev Jayate told Firstpost in an exclusive interview, “I put myself under pressure because Sushmita Sen ma’am herself is an icon and the song is iconic too. I saw how previous remakes were being trashed and given negative reviews.”

Taking an Arabic route for ‘Dilbar’ was an obvious choice for the 26-year-old dancer as she feels if the music has a specific theme, the accompanying dance form should do justice to it. “When we heard the song, there was no other way but to make it oriental and include belly dancing because the composition is very oriental,” she said.

The actress made her Bollywood debut in Roar: Tigers of the Sundarbans and rose to fame with the help of special appearances in movies like Baahubali: The Beginning and Emraan Hashmi -starrer Mr. X. While talking about the inception of her latest project, she recalled, “When the producers approached me, I said yes right away because it’s going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. It came to me as a newcomer, I am not even established. It could have gone to anybody.” Further, she stated that this song was the perfect opportunity to showcase her talent and charisma since she is the center of attention throughout.

Nora has previously shared the silver screen with John in the video of ‘Rock Tha Party’ but he is not seen making any moves there and ‘Dilbar’ is not any different on those lines. She believes that one half of the Desi Boyz does not need to shake a leg —  “He just needs to come in front of the camera and look good. He’s got such an aura.”

Belly dancing is not new to Bollywood. In fact, it is as old as Helen’s ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ (1975) but the Bigg Boss 9 contestant feels her approach towards the art is more authentic and real. “No offense to anyone but I think it is not being done justice to. A lot of people who are not Indians, who are Arabs, watch Hindi movies since we have a huge Bollywood following, we really feel that way. It is not an easy thing to do, I don’t blame anybody,” she adds.

The self-trained dancer does not limit herself to belly dancing. She has been seen performing a variety of styles during her stint at Jhalak Dikhla Jaa.  She was also spotted in Harrdy Sandhu’s video of ‘Naah’. Interestingly, she landed up the Punjabi singer’s project because of an Instagram video. According to her, “Social media has opened a lot of doors for artists and it is the way forward. It has become a platform for all of us to show off our talents instead of sitting back at home and waiting for someone to call us.”

Nora also spilled some beans about her upcoming collaboration with the Moroccan pop singer Saad Lamjarred , “I can’t really talk about it much but by the end of this year, he’ll be in India to shoot a music video. We are going to be using an Indian theme, one from Bombay.” Recently she made a dance cover of Saad’s hit track ‘Ghazali’ where she mixed everything from Chaabi to Afro with Bollywood freestyle into her choreography and produced a viral video.

Fatehi is currently gearing up for her next Bollywood appearance and make some moves alongside Rajkummar Rao in his horror comedy flick Stree.