After being seen in Torbaaz opposite Sanjay Dutt, Nargis Fakhri has been missing from Bollywood. So where did she go?
The Rockstar breakout actress says she became unwell while working in the Indian film industry.
Talking about her absence from the industry, Nargis Fakhri told News18;
“I became unwell. I was going through too much mental and physical stress. I had a lot of physical ailments that were interfering with my daily life. It was very difficult to ignore these problems. My body, in a way, was telling me that it was not able to handle it. I knew it in my mind that I had to take a break because I wasn’t the happiest person.”
The Houseful 3 actress shared how she believes that artists often need more than just a few days of break to be themselves.
“In an industry like this, you’re constantly running on a hamster wheel, you’re always in a rat race, and you’ve to keep up because you don’t want to fall back. You’ve to attend meetings, you’ve to do ads… it just never ends! You only get a couple of days off between projects. The pressure and the mental stress that you go through are heavy even though that depends on the kind of films or characters you’re doing. You’ve to invest your soul when you’re acting,” also added.
Recalling her personal experience of overworking, she shared how she kept at it by focusing on the silver lining.
“I kept working because I was blessed to have the opportunities and I didn’t want to just throw them away and walk off. I definitely enjoyed some bits of it but I had my share of unhappy days, weeks and months, … I had to push through. I didn’t want to just give up. I was pushing myself so hard that my mind felt disconnected from my body. I really needed rest.”
However, ‘pushing through’ took a toll on her health, and she had to tell herself to ‘listen to her body‘.
“I had to talk to myself and say, ‘Hey, what’s the point of being here? Why are you listening to other people? Listen to your body, listen to your feelings.’”
The Amavas actress also shared how being away from her support system affected her during the initial years of her career when she first set foot in Bollywood.
“If your family is close to you or they live close by, there’s nothing like it. Coming home to family, who you share a good relationship with, is very important because they ground and recharge you. If you don’t have that, you’re just left flapping in the wind with nothing to hold onto. I’m a very strong person and I could’ve continued but it was a necessary decision to leave.”
She even elaborated on how she wasn’t afraid of going out of sight and hence, out of mind.
“I remember telling my agency about it. They told me not to do that and cautioned me that if I go out of sight, I would be out of people’s minds. I can’t deny their fears, there’s definitely some truth to that. But what was important was the answer to the question, ‘Why would someone choose to go out of sight and how much do they want to be there out there anymore?’”
