Nargis Fakhri opens up on her Bollywood exit: Bollywood Dances and Male ego were too much to handle

One is not the least surprised by the utterly distasteful video being circulated which shows unwanted attention being showered on Nargis Fakhri. Nargis and I in fact spoke during the shooting of the film and she had warily confessed she was “quite exhausted” by the ways of Bollywood.

Soon after she left Mumbai. Nargis said, and I quote, “I encountered an unfortunate situation that caused me to not be able to come back to Bollywood. I do not want to talk about that. These factors of having to pander to the male ego is international so, no it did not cause me to recoil or leave Bollywood. Although this is not true for all people in the industry. I have met and worked with some wonderful people and really appreciate them.”

Nargis was never comfortable with the Bollywood conventions. “The heaving thrusting butt-moving is tough. When they give you the movements forty minutes before they are shot and then you’ve to learn the steps and then lip-sync you have to be a seasoned dancer to get a hang of it, which I am not. It’s very difficult for my mind and body to be in sync because I have learnt western dancing. Bollywood dancing is very different.”

Nargis was trying to come to terms with her typical Bollywood song-and-dance. “I completed a song and dance with Shahid Kapoor in Phata Poster Nikla Hero and then Varun Dhawan in Main Tera Hero. Even the terminology ‘item song’ is new to me. When people say a girl is doing an item song they mean it in a not-so-nice way. Bollywood dancing is as alien to me as Hindi. I am just enjoying learning it. There is a lot of heaving and boob-thrusting which I found difficult at first. But I was okay after a while. There are so many people indulging in so many activities on the sets. Come to think of it everything here in Mumbai is culturally very different from everywhere else.”

Before the Varun Dhawan incident Nargis had spoken to me about a major superstar who had her ousted from a project when she didn’t “pander to his ego”.

Such unwanted attention is a common occurrence for women who are not part of film families. Nobody would dare take such liberties with Alia Bhatt, Sara Ali Khan or Janhvi Kapoor for very obvious reasons. But actresses from the outside, especially someone who comes from West—and we all know how chalu these firangi types are—are seen as “hot and available”

How do I know? I’ve heard actors talking that way about actresses who don’t have blood connections in the entertainment industry.

Also Read: Nargis Fakhri shares FIRST post after sister Aliya’s arrest in murder case: “We are coming…”