‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ actress Aahana Kumra has grabbed the attention after revealing something very shocking. In an interview with Bombay Times, the actress has spoken about her struggles in Bollywood and also about the most happening thing currently, #MeToo movement.
She revealed that she was so disheartened over the Bollywood work culture that she almost decided to commit 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.”
On asking what exactly went wrong and made her thinking to take such a drastic step, the actress 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 a 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.”
It’s so tremendous of Aahana that she realized that committing a suicide is wrong and picked herself up from the state of depression and moved on to give us memorable performances in films like Lipstick Under My Burkha.
