Northwestern’s Hindi film dance team, A-NU-Bhav, won first place at the collegiate national championships this weekend.

After qualifying for nationals in February at the A-Town Showdown in Atlanta, A-NU-Bhav, founded in 2008, beat out 10 other teams at Bollywood America, the largest South Asian filmi-fusion dance competition in the world. This was the first year in A-NU-Bhav’s history the group qualified for nationals.

(A-NU-Bhav qualifies for national Bollywood America competition)

Aalap Herur-Raman, president of A-NU-Bhav, said the team started practicing earlier than usual this year and created an unconventional story for their routine.

The team’s dance told the story of a man who comes out as gay to his fiancee and mother. Herur-Raman said this contrasts with most routines, which revolve around the classic love story between a man and a woman.

“We wanted to show that love doesn’t really have any boxes,” the McCormick junior said. “Any type of love can be told through a Bollywood story, not just a typical guy-girl romance. Our theme was very revolutionary.”

A-NU-Bhav also won best choreography and best storyline and second-year graduate student Yuri Doolan was named Mr. Bollywood America. 

Leading up to Bollywood America, the team competed in four competitions, winning three of them and placing second in one.

Weinberg freshman Ushasi Naha said performing at Bollywood America was more than just winning.

“At the end of the day, we are dancing for our team,” she said. “The story is a lot more than a show we put on for the audience. It’s a show we put on for our teammates. We have been putting in so much effort all year long and we knew we just needed to put our hearts in the story and believe in everything we had done. ”

Naha said the group will be losing many of its leads this year, but she is confident the group can succeed using complex story lines and choreography.

Herur-Raman added through all the traveling and practices, the team became a “family.”

“I think the most important thing is to come up with a great dance and have fun doing it,” he said. “You really become a family with all these people, and I think that’s what it’s all about.”

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