Nora Fatehi said that she shot both these songs in a span of weeks, but did not get paid for either of them.
When Nora Fatehi made her appearance as the featured dancer in the song “Dilbar” for 2018’s Satyameva Jayate, she was still making a name for herself in the Indian entertainment business. Despite being a huge hit and having received over a billion views on YouTube, Nora was not compensated for the music video. Nora said she was ready to leave India when she was offered “Dilbar” and the song “Kamariya” from Stree in a recent interview with Rajeev Masand at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Despite her dire need for money, she reminded herself that now was not the time to get paid but rather to establish her worth.
According to Nora, she shot for “Kamariya” initially, then two weeks later, she worked on “Dilbar.” She claimed that despite not getting paid, she was committed to performing these songs on her own terms. “I met the people who wrote these two songs, which I did for free and never received payment for, incidentally. And I performed them for free because I stated that now is not the time for me to earn money, but rather for me to establish my reputation, prove myself, and collaborate with reliable individuals,” she said. According to Nora, she considered the John Abraham-starring Satyameva Jayate and Dinesh Vijan-producing Stree to be “credible” chances.
With both songs, Nora stated that she aimed to push the boundaries. “Look, we can turn this into an item song and just look hot and sexy and end the story, or we could change the game and make it more of a dance-oriented visual, a dance-oriented experience where people don’t have to be uncomfortable to watch it with their families and kids,” I said as soon as I sat down with those filmmakers.
In the same chat, Nora said that right before shooting these songs, she was struggling to pay rent and didn’t have money to eat. “I went through a phase where I was so skinny and borderline anorexic because I didn’t have money to eat much,” she said, and shared that she was with a modelling agency who “exploited” her and did not pay her dues. “We were really exploited as foreign models, and I didn’t have money to pay rent, to be honest,” she said.
“Dilbar” was a part of Satyameva Jayate, which was directed by Milap Zaveri, and produced by Bhushan Kumar’ T-Series and Nikkhil Advani’s Emmay Entertainment. “Kamariya” was a part of Amar Kaushik’s Stree, which was produced by Dinesh Vijan, and Raj and DK.