Actor Zoya Hussain recently hit the headlines for her alleged relationship with actor Jim Sarbh. As we ask her if there is any truth to those rumours and she says, “Lots of stuff is made up about it and lots of stuff is true as well.”
The 33-year-old adds, “We are close and live our normal lives where we go out together, chill together. It’s fine, people will scrutinise it. Neither of us have this reaction like, ‘Oh, why is it happening?’ Everyone is doing their job and it’s okay.” But have the reports about their relationship affected their equation? She responds, “Not really. Actually, this scrutiny of one’s personal life is like the first thing you prepare yourself mentally for as public figures. You know this is going to happen.” Ask her if this is a friendship being misconstrued, and she says, “I don’t exactly know what is being written about beyond a point, but it’s fine.”
Hussain has been a part of the industry for over seven years, having done projects like Mukkabaaz (2017), Laal Kaptaan (2019) and Bhaiyya Ji. Yet she wishes “I was more settled, but I am not.” She says, “Fortunately, I have been on the good receiving end when it comes to what is written about my projects, but most people don’t know I exist. I am still finding my feet and figuring things out.”
The actor insists that all her work to date has been more niche and less commercial, not by choice. “If you are an industry person, the infrastructure helps you have an identity. It’s about how you are mounted and presented to the audience and even the industry people. Unfortunately, most outsiders don’t have it and it is frustrating. It’s not like we don’t want to work more but nobody has seen you in that light that they can’t even imagine you. Star kids, even though it’s difficult for them to prove themselves, they still get a variety of opportunities to choose from,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}The actor insists that all her work to date has been more niche and less commercial, not by choice. “If you are an industry person, the infrastructure helps you have an identity. It’s about how you are mounted and presented to the audience and even the industry people. Unfortunately, most outsiders don’t have it and it is frustrating. It’s not like we don’t want to work more but nobody has seen you in that light that they can’t even imagine you. Star kids, even though it’s difficult for them to prove themselves, they still get a variety of opportunities to choose from,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}Hussain adds that there are times when “I have definitely felt overlooked.” She shares, “If you have to go to an event and get hair, make up, and designer clothes, the people might even like you, but they’d be like who are you? I have got situations where I have been asked to wait for all other people’s interviews to get done on the red carpet, before they come to me. I was even nominated at an award show, and they literally didn’t care about me at all. It’s usually about the star kids. There is no negative motivation that anyone has but it’s maybe all about commerce.” Although, the actor is content that she is getting to work with people like filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and actors Manoj Bajpayee and Saif Ali Khan. “It makes you feel that somewhere what you are doing is right,” she ends.