The first thing that strikes one about Norah Fatehi is her shuddh Hindi and English devoid of an accent. She made a successful debut as an item dancer in NTR’s recent film Temper and had already worked in Tigers Of The Sunderbans and Crazy Cukkad Family . She is currently doing a Sanjay Suri project. The pretty and affable girl is from Canada — her father is a Moroccan and mother a Punjabi. She explains, “My father never dated my mother. He saw her in a school campus when she was 16 and went to my grandparents to ask for her hand in marriage. My mom was 17 when she got married and I was born and brought up in Toronto. I have always been in touch with my roots — both Indian and Arab culture.”
About her entry into showbiz, Norah says, “I had signed up with an agency and they wanted me to go abroad for work and that’s how I am here. More than modelling per se, I was into dancing, TV and commercials and I thought I should be in the movies. I loved the culture, dance, colours which are the different layers to the film industry. It was more exciting and challenging to come here, work hard and learning something new to achieve a goal.”
Norah had the advantage of growing up in a cosmopolitan place and can blend into any culture easily. In Mumbai she had done many commercials and it helped her build her confidence and techniques of facing the camera before moving to films.
How difficult is it to sustain in the glamorous world? Norah, at 5ft 6 inches was considered not good enough for the ramp, so she did lot of catalogues and commercials. She says it is not an easy job to face the camera anywhere in the world, “While working for ads, I realised, people are ready to break your confidence and point out your flaws. They say you have baby fat, your skin is bad, hair is thin and they are frank and in your face… you can’t say anything, just smile. There are not many people ready to say nice things in general in the glamour world. You need to be thick skinned, listen and move on. There is a lot of competition and the only thing is to get by is to understand that what is meant for you is meant for you. Every day girls land in Mumbai international airport to try their luck and they are really beautiful. You can’t have high expectations, when something just comes you are just happy. When it doesn’t come you start questioning, you have to increase your skills, talent and learn something new.”
