EXCLUSIVE: Haathi Mere Saathi’s Zoya Hussain: Was told to get nose & boob job; not easy to stick to your guns

Zoya Hussain first rose to fame with Mukkabaz where she left everyone impressed. She will soon be seen in Haathi Mere Saathi which also stars Rana Daggubati, Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar, and Vishnu Vishal. In a candid chat with Zoya, she opened up on the kind of prejudices she had to face when she first entered the industry. She recalled being asked to get her nose, lips and boobs done and also being shamed for her body, her colour and what not! Zoya reiterated that it was difficult to keep a sense of yourself during that time but she did. “I can only speak for myself and can say that I did not have a rosy time at all. I have had to make very hard decisions,” she told Bollywood Bubble.

“I have had to say no to a lot of conventional, pretty female roles because in my very first meeting with a casting director I was told that I should get a nose job, lip job, cheeks, and a boob job, otherwise, I will only do ‘indie’ movies. I was told all this in such a casual manner ‘this is good for you, this will help you, will make you commercial.” This was my first meeting ever and I was like this is rude, demeaning. Luckily, I come from a family where these things were never a thing. If I change everything about myself, what is my opinion, I will be empty. I was lucky that I got filmmakers like Anurag, Dibakar, and it is important because even if you want to hold a sense of yourself, it is not easy,” Zoya Hussain added.

She also said that the infrastructure in the industry makes it difficult for people from outside to have it easy. “After all, the infrastructure doesn’t support you if you are not a model, a Starkid, or in today’s time if you don’t have Instagram followers. For a newcomer without any background in the industry, it is difficult to keep a sense of yourself and you do suffer the consequences of those decisions but for me, what was important is to know if I just wanted an acting job or have a career.”

 

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Lastly, she shared, “I wanted a career. Having said that, I have been shamed for my colour, my body, and you need to have a solid spine to stick to your guns. It is not easy.”

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Bhavna Agarwal

Assistant Editor at Bollywood Bubble. An ambivert who is currently high on K-dramas and K-Pop. A forever Bollywood fan, who continues to gush over solid stories and characters. Hit me up for a fine conversation over chai.

You can also reach me on – https://twitter.com/filmybugB