Lipstick Under My Burkha actress Aahana Kumra has been
around Bollywood for quite sometime. She has always been one of the few
actresses who never shy away from speaking their hearts out. In an interview
with Bombay Times, the actress has spoken about her struggles in Bollywood and
also about the #MeToo movement.
Aahana said she was so disillusioned by Bollywood that
she was almost on the verge of committing suicide. "I am a different
person today. About five years ago, I was disillusioned by this culture of
Bollywood, and there was no one to pull me out of it. I was on the verge of
committing suicide, because this culture is so normalised by certain people. I
couldn’t live with who I was anymore. I started questioning myself about who I
had become. I was not what my parents expected me to be. It has taken me a lot to
come out of it," she said while speaking to BT.
When prodded further about what she thought went wrong,
Aahana said, "When you start working as a professional, you tend to get
sucked into a group of people who do the kind of things that you are not conditioned
to do. Then, you become a different human being. I will not deny the fact that
I was in bad company. I had to consciously steer away from it, as I realised
that it will take me down badly. There were some people from a known production
house, who were part of my circle, but today, they are not my friends anymore.
In college, guys were scared to talk to me, also because my mom is a cop. A guy
touching me inappropriately was something I could never handle. When I came in
to the industry, my principles were shaken. One day, I sat myself down in my
bedroom and deleted all the blocked numbers. Till date, these people cannot
contact me. These are big names! Directors, ADs, producers. I never aspired to
be TV actor, but I choose to do a TV show called Agent Raghav just to retain my
sanity. I told myself that I will work and make a living without letting anyone
feel that ‘she is so desperate that she will do anything for work’. In this
industry, people can smell desperation. They do talk like that and I have heard
people say these things about me. I told myself I won’t do it anymore. I hosted
Kabaddi on TV. I did everything that I never imagined myself doing."
A Still Of Aahana Kumra From Movie Lipstick Under My Burkha
Well, we have seen many actresses speak up in the past
about having faced depression during their initial days in Bollywood. Also,
cases of struggling actresses or models committing suicide have been numerous
in B-Town. It's tremendous to see that Aahana picked herself up from her
disturbed mental state and went ahead to give us memorable performances in
films like Lipstick Under My Burkha.
Image Source: instagram/aahanakumra & homedesign3d.club