Everyone dreaming of a career in Bollywood needs to work hard to survive and not every actor with a background in the film industry is privileged as it does not guarantee success, film director, producer, and choreographer Farah Khan said, while talking about the contentious issue of nepotism that has been hogging the limelight for some time now.
Farah Khan was in the city on Thursday and enthralled members of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Flo with her witty replies, while also giving a glimpse of her emotional side.
“Not every actor with a background in film industry is privileged. The star sons who are termed as ‘nepokids’ these days could get easy entry in the industry, but being from a filmy background does not guarantee success. Everyone needs to work hard to survive,” she said.
She said that she herself was from a film background, but was not a privileged one.
“My father Kamran Khan was an actor and director. On one Friday, one of his movies was released and on Sunday we lost all our money. We woke up poor and the situation continued for 13 years,” she said.
“I wanted to be a director and started my career as an assistant to director Mansoor Khan. Meanwhile, I got a chance to choreograph the iconic song ‘pehla nasha’ and the rest is history. I got my first Filmfare award for ‘dhol bajne laga’ song featuring Anil Kapoor and Tabu from the movie ‘Viraasat’, but I wanted to be a director as I wanted to do it for my father,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}“I wanted to be a director and started my career as an assistant to director Mansoor Khan. Meanwhile, I got a chance to choreograph the iconic song ‘pehla nasha’ and the rest is history. I got my first Filmfare award for ‘dhol bajne laga’ song featuring Anil Kapoor and Tabu from the movie ‘Viraasat’, but I wanted to be a director as I wanted to do it for my father,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}She said that despite the outer sheen, the film industry is tough and one should have a thick skin and a strong mindset to survive here. The new generation in the industry is not able to handle failure and criticism.
Besides being a director, she loves to be a homemaker and said that nowadays she is cooking Italian food for her children, who are shy.
Farah also shared a few incidents of her life, one being when she found a hotel room in Scotland haunted. She said that she was so scared that she had shifted with director Karan Johar in his room for the rest of the tour.
Answering queries of FICCI Flo members, Farah said if she wrote an autobiography, its title would be ‘picture abhi baki hai mere dost’.