Muslim Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim, 18, has publicly announced she will quit acting in Bollywood film industry, saying that the profession “threatened” her relationship with her Allah.
Ms Wasim who is of Kashmiri origin, has received numerous accolades including a Filmfare award, National Film Award, as well as the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2017.
She rose to fame in 2016 when made her debut with the role of wrestler Geeta Phogat in the biographical sports film Dangal (2016), which was the highest grossing Bollywood film in history ($290 million).
“This journey has been exhausting, to battle my soul for so long,” she wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on Sunday.
The former actress posted the following status on her official Facebook page, which has since gone viral, attracting thousands of comments and likes:
“5 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.
“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 struggled 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. 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 from my life. Barakat is word whose meaning isn’t just confined to happiness, quantity or blessing, it also focuses on the idea of stability, which is something I struggled with extensively.
“I began to heavily rely upon Allah’s mercy for my help and guidance instead of valuing my own believability. I discovered my lack of knowledge of the basic fundamentals of my religion and how my inability to reinforce a change earlier was a result of confusing my heart’s contentment and wellbeing with strengthening and satisfying my own (shallow and worldly) desires. I discovered my disease of doubt & error that my heart was afflicted with- There are 2 types of diseases that attack the heart, one; DOUBT and Error and the second; LUST and Desire. Both are mentioned in the Quran.
“Allah says: “In their hearts is a disease (of doubt & hypocrisy) and Allah increased their disease. [Quran 2:10]. And I realized the remedy to this could only be attained through the guidance of Allah and indeed Allah guided my path when I lost my way.
“Quran and the guidance of Allah’s messenger (PBUH) became the weighing factor in my decision making and reasoning and it has changed my approach to life and its meaning.
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Ms Wasim’s next movie, The Sky is Pink, could now be her last. The film also stars Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra and is slated for release later this year.
