It has taken just three years for Stanford’s Hindi Film Dance team to establish itself as the best in California, confirmed by its first-place finish in last weekend’s Bollywood Berkeley competition. The squad beat out traditional powers UC-Berkeley, UCLA and UC-San Diego to take home the $1,500 grand prize.

Stanford’s team, named “Dil Se” — translation: “from the heart” — also earned an automatic berth to the “Best of the Best” competition, to be held in New York City in April.

Hindi film dance is based on songs from India’s prolific Bollywood movie industry; these dances are analogous to choreographed numbers in American musicals.

Teams take various songs from these movies and mix them into medleys that tell stories in an eight-minute dance routine. They are judged on energy, story, choreography and synchronization.

“I definitely think that this team has improved from last year,” said team co-captain Nick Oza, a graduate student in electrical engineering. “We have amazing chemistry, where everyone on stage is dancing for the team, for each other. Everyone has gone out of their way at some point to help with the many different aspects involved in running a production.”

Dil Se was established at Stanford three years ago and achieved some early success, but this was the squad’s first top showing. This year, the team of 18 students performed for a sold-out audience in San Francisco that included 130 Stanford friends and family members. Oza called the supporters the team’s “19th man.”

Auditions for the team are held at the beginning of every year, with both South Asians and non-South Asians welcome to try out.

Dil Se will face tough competition in New York. Last year’s UC-Berkeley team won first place at every competition that it attended, but chose to pass up the opportunity to perform at nationals. While Berkeley was considered the unofficial victor, the actual national champion was the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“I am definitely very excited about New York City and our chances of success,” Oza said. “We will work harder to see if we can clean out some of the errors that we currently have in our routine. We will also add more awe-inspiring moves into the dance. As a team, we will do everything we can to make sure we don’t get complacent, as the top teams in the nation always practice like they are number two.”

The “Best of the Best” competition will feature three film dance teams, three Garba/Raas teams and three Bhangra teams — other styles of Indian dance. There will be a winner for each category and an overall winner from among the three top teams. Stanford’s Raas team has been a force to be reckoned with over the past two years, as they took second-place at a national competition in 2004 and won first-place last year.

Dil Se team members said they were passionate about what they do and feel like they have gained life experience being a part of the team.

“From practices until 11 p.m. to sewing embellishments on costumes, I have learned so much from being on this team,” said Salima Mavani, a freshman. “Although our practices are rigorous and time-consuming, ranging from two to four times a week, the passion and teamwork that I have acquired is invaluable. Being on the team has taught me that no matter what you do, do it from the heart, Dil Se.”

Students can watch the team perform next at the Rhythms cultural show on Feb. 24.