National Award-winning actor Zaira Wasim announced on Sunday her decision to quit the film industry saying she was not happy with the line of work as it interfered with her religion.
The Dangal actress took to social media and put up a lengthy post about the past five years and how it has “changed her life forever”.
“Five years ago I made a decision that changed my life forever. As I stepped my foot in Bollywood, it opened doors of massive popularity for me. I started to become the prime candidate of public attention, I was projected as the gospel of the idea of success and was often identified as a role model for the youth.
“However, that's never something that I set out to do or become, especially with regards to my ideas of success and failure, which I had just started to explore and understand,” Kashmiri-born Zaira wrote.
She further wrote, “As I complete 5 years today, I want to confess that I am not truly happy with this identity i.e my line of work. For a very long time now it has felt like I have struggle to become someone else. As I had just started to explore and make sense of the things to which I dedicated my time, efforts and emotions and tried to grab hold of a new lifestyle, it was only for me to realise that though I may fit here perfectly, I do not belong here.”
“This field indeed brought a lot of love, support, and applause my way, but what it also did was to lead me to a path of ignorance, as I silently and unconsciously transitioned out of imaan (faith). While I continued to work in an environment that consistently interfered with my imaan, my relationship with my religion was threatened,” she wrote.
As I continued to ignorantly pass through while I kept trying to convince myself that what I was doing is okay and isn't really affecting me, I lost all the Barakah (blessing) from my life.”
Zaira continues on about her lack of basic knowledge of her religion and how she had confused contentment with satisfying her “shallow and worldly desires”. She said she continued to observe things and twist her perceptions as she wanted them to be, without really understanding that the key was to see them as they were.
“In the great and divine wisdom of the Quran, I found sufficiency and peace. Indeed the hearts find peace when it acquires the knowledge of Its Creator, His Attributes, His Mercy and His commandments,” Zaira added. She further said that the journey has been “exhausting, to battle my soul for so long” and life was too short yet too long to be at war with oneself.
Zaira made her Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan's sports drama Dangal in 2016 as the young Geeta Phogat. She won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film. She then went on to star in Secret Superstar, which also did well at the box-office and garnered Zaira praise for her portrayal of a teenage musician.
Zaira will next be seen in The Sky is Pink, which also stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Farhan Akhtar.
Read Zaira Wasim's full post here:
(With inputs from PTI)
