They begin preparing for their season in the summer. In the weeks before a major competition, they might practice up to seven hours in a day. They can be found in the Wooden Center or Parking Lot 7 under the Intramural Field, perfecting their every move. They are not part of a sports team but are a different kind of athlete. They are the members of UCLA Nashaa, the university’s official Hindi Film Dance team, specializing in the kind of moves familiar to those who have seen Bollywood movies (or at least the last five minutes of “Slumdog Millionaire”?). They are well-known in the intense collegiate circuit thanks to years of racking up awards. The 16-person team goes into competition Saturday at Bollywood Berkeley, a competition hosted by UC Berkeley, with a first-place win already under its belt this season. Last weekend, the team won PhillyFest, one of the major South Asian fusion and Hindi Film Dance competitions in the nation. Nashaa beat hometown favorite Broad Street Baadshahz, an all-male fusion team. Co-captain Kaajal Baheti, a fourth-year bioengineering student, said it felt like a dream. “When they announced the top three and we found out we placed, we were already so happy,”? Baheti said. “And then they said, “˜First place goes to our friends from Hollywood,’ and we all fell to the ground, all crying. Everything felt like this big blur. That’s going to be ingrained in my head forever.”? The win was especially significant for a team that consists almost entirely of new members. With the exception of the four captains and one returning member, the remainder of the group had never participated in a Hindi Film Dance team before. Enthusiasm and energy are essential to creating and perfecting a routine, which Meghana Karmarkar, a fourth-year physiological science student, said is similar to condensing a Broadway musical. This style is unlike any other Indian dance form in that it combines many elements of Indian dance, including Bollywood, Bhangra and classical, as well as hip-hop. In competition, a team must tell a story during a 6-to-8 – minute routine. The skit must contain a filmed introduction video, a story with dialogue, costume changes, a backdrop and props. And that’s not even including the components of dance, in which there must be stunts, formation changes and choreography. The stories tend to revolve around a typical Bollywood movie thread with a romantic plot and dialogues that are corny and lovey-dovey, Karmarkar said. This year, Nashaa’s performance tells the story of an Indian-American author who returns to his homeland and falls in love, both with the country he forgot and with a girl who can’t read. The leads on the team, usually a male and a female, carry the love story. Nashaa’s male lead and co-captain Amar Chatterjee, a fourth-year business economics student, said the role has come with a lot of reward and a lot of pressure. “It’s been said that 70 percent of people’s attention is devoted to the leads,”? he said. “You have to work on expressions a lot more than as a background dancer, plus do the dialogue. And being captain and lead, making sure that everyone’s OK and then working on yourself, that’s a lot of responsibility.”? The season schedule is intense, with practices sometimes lasting from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Such dedication is essential in a dance form in which the cleanliness of every move is judged, said female lead and co-captain Sukrutha Sujai, a fourth-year chemical engineering student. The dancers have multiple reasons for participating. Chatterjee said dancing makes him feel more connected to his culture, and Sujai said participating in the group allows her to live out a dream. “I think every person, maybe they won’t admit it, but deep down when they watch these Bollywood movies, they have this secret dream to be that Bollywood hero, and (Hindi Film Dance) is this outlet where you get to be that person,”? she said.