EXCLUSIVE: Saqib Saleem reveals how negative reviews made him lock himself in his room for days; says, “I won’t call myself depressed so loosely but…”

Saba Azad and Saqib Saleem have delivered versatile performances, earning recognition in Bollywood. Saba, also a singer and musician, has gained recognition for her work in films and web serie. While Saqib has impressed audiences with his roles in both mainstream and indie cinema.

Recently, both the actors teamed up in the latest release, Crime Beat. A gripping true-crime series that delves into real-life cases. Offering in-depth investigations, expert insights, and dramatic reenactments to uncover the truth behind shocking crimes. In an exclusive chat, Saqib Saleem speaks about the time he was getting negative reviews everyday and how he coped with it.

Saqib Saleem on negative film reviews

In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Bubble, Saqib Saleem recalls the time when he read about the negative review about one of his films. He said, “So I have been very fortunate. I haven’t gotten a lot of negative reviews, barring when I had done Race. That time, life was very different, Saba. I would wake up to nasty things, and I wasn’t very comfortable with it. It did put me in a state where I wasn’t happy. I won’t call myself depressed so loosely, but I was just not feeling fine about it. When you read so many negative things about you, it can get to you. You start to question your ability. I remember waking up in the morning, and I had a quilt at home. I just didn’t wanna get out of it for days. For three days, I was inside that quilt. My food was served. I used to eat but not get out of my room. For three days, I was sulking.”

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Saqib speaks about an article about him

He continued, “I remember 1 interview from Anupama Chopra she was at film companion at that time and of course the review really said what she felt about the film, whatever else, but then she said something like the, ‘ever reliable Saqib Saleem is restricted to hamming and adding bro after every sentence.’ So I read the review 2-3 times and I kept reading, ‘The usually reliable Saqib Saleem’ and that just made be, I just gotta find the silver lining in everything, I have to find the positive in everything, there is, it’s not like 1 film or 1 performance can change my ability. As an artist you’re putting out what you know, sometimes it’s not going to percieved the way you think, so you have to be ready for that but, you have to just get up again and find the next best opportunity and do that and that’s what that episode taught me is like…. okay there are some people who like your work, you can either be sulking here all day or go knocking on doors and be like, ‘Where’s my next opportunity?’, I’d rather do that.”

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Watch full interview

Interview transcribe & written by Harsh Nargolkar

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