Positive vibes only!
Zareen Khan gets candid about challenges in Bollywood, body shaming and online negativity
Zareen Khan marked her big Bollywood debut in 2010 with Salman Khan’s Veer, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing for her since then. Time and again, the actress has been subjected to harsh criticism both from trolls online, critics and even Bollywood insiders. The Free Press Journal caught up with her for an exclusive conversation.
After a long time, Zareen has made her peace with trolls. “We live in a digital world, where everyone has access to everything. On the one hand, we can directly interact with our fans and get their love, and on the other hand, we also have to face people who just want to spread negativity. Most of these people won’t be able to speak a word if we come face to face with them. I feel they are secretly our fans, and they just want our attention. This is why they write these nasty things,” she says. She adds, “I have weighed over 100 kg at one point in my life. So if people shaming me then did not affect me, it definitely doesn’t affect me now.” Zareen reveals that she was asked to shed some kilos to get roles in films. “I even did it back then because I thought that is how the industry works. But later on, I realised that your looks should not weigh down the potential that you have as an actor. I am an actor, and I am hired to act, not to be an eye-candy on screen,” she states.
She sheds light on the double standards of some people in Bollywood. “In this industry, there are people who come forward and speak about how body-shaming is wrong. But then, when they have to cast someone in a film, the same people will go for actors with ‘perfect bodies’. It is a very hypocritical industry,” she states.
Till date, Zareen keeps getting tagged as a ‘Salman Khan actress’ and this does irk her at times. “Of course, Salman made me a part of this industry for which I’ll be forever grateful to him. But that’s about it. He brought me here, but the journey ahead has been my own. I cannot sit on his back forever. I have faced the ups and downs on my own, and I have dealt with my struggles. It’s really sad when I do all the work on my own credit, and it is my hard work, but people come in and say that I got it because of someone else,” she rues.
The actress feels that because of all the negative publicity that came her way at the beginning of her career, filmmakers became sceptical of coming to her with opportunities. “At the very beginning of my career, I got a lot of backlash for reasons I don’t even know. Whatever went wrong in that film, somehow I got blamed for it: for looking like a certain actress or for my weight,” she says.
The silver lining for Zareen is that she is quite popular in the regional film industries. “I got a lot of offers from the South and the Punjabi film industry, which actually should’ve come from the Hindi industry. I get so much love from those parts of the country,” she gushes.
Zareen is expecting an eventful 2022. “I have a web series coming up and some Punjabi films as well. I am really looking forward to launching my own perfume brand. I hope people now start looking beyond my physical appearance and give me the opportunity to showcase my real talent,” she concludes.