The environment damaged my peace and relationship with Allah: Zaira Wasim on quitting Bollywood

LAHORE- Bollywood actor Zaira Wasim announced her "disassociation" from the field of acting because she felt her relationship with Islam was threatened.

The Dangal star posted a detailed note on her Facebook about how she felt like she wasn’t truly happy with her line of work as it interfered with her faith and religion, reported Hindustan Times.

https://www.facebook.com/WZairaaa/posts/378614566192829

Zaira wrote, “Five 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, that is, my line of work. For a very long time now it has felt like I have struggled to become someone else.”

The 18-year-old said she continued to observe things and to "ignorantly pass through" while trying to convince herself that what she was doing was okay, without really understanding that the key was to see everything the way it actually was.

The National Award-winning actress went on to explain that even though she may have fit into the film fraternity perfectly, she felt as if she didn’t belong there, “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.”

“While I continued to work in an environment that consistently interfered with my Imaan, my relationship with my religion was threatened.”

Zaira even got a response from popular Islamic scholar Mufti Ismail Menk, who said, “May the Almighty bless you, be with you, keep guiding you, protect you, grant you goodness, happiness, contentment, bliss and success in this world and the next & the same for everyone of us. Aameen.“

Even before the release of her debut film, Zaira faced immense criticism for being ‘unislamic’ by acting in a film.

Zaira Wasim will next be seen in The Sky is Pink, which also stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Farhan Akhtar. The film completed its shooting in March.

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