Bollywood actor Zaira Wasim, who gained popularity after her appearances in blockbusters Dangal and Secret Superstar, recently announced that she is quitting Bollywood because she felt it was interfering with her imaan (faith).
The 18-year-old, who hails from Kashmir, took to social media to announce her decision. In a detailed post, in which she also quoted verses from the Quran, Zaira said that she wasn’t entirely happy with her line of work and the identity it gave her. Hence, she decided to quit the industry after working in it for 5 years to focus on her relationship with Allah.
Zaira’s decision and announcement stirred a debate on social media. While many including fellow actor Raveena Tandon and journalist Barkha Dutt criticised her for using the religion card, others including Former CM J&K Omar Abdullah supported her.
Raveena Tandon felt Zaira was being ungrateful.
But when she received backlash on her comments, she wrote:
Journalist Barkha Dutt felt that it was the society that pressured the young actress into giving up her career.
Actor and director Kamal R Khan felt the whole thing was just a publicity stunt.
However, there were others who supported Zaira. They drew comparisons to Vinod Khanna, who quit the film industry at the peak of his career to follow his spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh and pointed out the film industry’s double standards.
