Fatima Sana Shaikh reveals she was molested at age three
Bollywood actor Fatima Sana Shaikh has revealed that she was sexually abused as a three-year-old. She, in an interview with Pinkvilla, also opened up about how she carved a niche for herself in Bollywood, and faced issues of casting couch and sexism in film industry. The 28-year-old added she hopes for a better future. Here's more on what she said.
"I was molested when I was just three years old. There is a stigma around the whole sexual abuse issue, which is why women...don't open up about being exploited in life. But I hope, today the world changes (sic)," the actor said.
Fatima, who started her career as a child artist in 1997 with Kamal Haasan's Chachi 420 and made her debut in a lead role with Aamir Khan-starrer sports film Dangal in 2016, said that she faced a lot of rejection in her career. "You don't look like Deepika, you don't look like Aishwarya. How will you be a heroine?" Fatima said she was told.
"That's the standard of beauty they subscribe to...And I clearly don't fall in that bracket, I fall into a different bracket. But there are opportunities now, there are films being made for people like me, who don't look like supermodels, who look normal, average (sic)."
Opening up about rampant sexism and casting couch in the industry, Fatima revealed, "I have faced people telling me that the only way to get a job is through sex. So that has also happened to me. I have lost jobs to someone else for whatever reason." She added that apart from the film industry, sexism exists in other industries as well.
Fatima was last seen in 2018 adventure film Thugs of Hindostan. She is now looking forward to two back-to-back releases. She will next be seen in Anurag Basu's crime thriller Ludo, co-starring Rajkummar Rao, Abhishek Bachchan and others. The film will premiere on Netflix on November 12. The actor also has comedy movie Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari in the pipeline.
