I was treated like a 'firangi' when I first came to Bollywood: Jacqueline Fernandez

She revealed how she was even denied a place to rent in Mumbai

Sri Lankan beauty pageant winner turned Bollywood heroine, Jacqueline Fernandez revealed just how much unsolicited advice she received when she first came to India.

In an interview with Pinkvilla, the actor talked about how she was explicitly denied a place to live in, and asked to change her name to 'Muskaan', among other things.

"When I first moved here, people used to be like, 'Oh, you're a single girl trying to become an actor?' That was actually really difficult," she said.

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She went on to relay an instance of being denied a place to live in. "I remember when I was making a shift into my third house here, and we found a bungalow in Bandra that we really liked. When they were told that it's for an actor, they were like, 'No, no! We can't give it to someone from the industry, they're not decent people.'"

That's not it though - she recalled how she was made to feel like a 'firangi' and an outsider when she first moved to Mumbai some 10 years back. "I felt really offended by this. I came for a Diwali party once in a really traditional outfit. Three of my actor friends were like, ‘Why are you wearing a saree? Why are you trying so hard? You are not Indian!’”

"The craziest thing was that when I came here, I never thought about how I would stand out or do things differently. I just wanted to be me. So, I didn't put an act!" Jacqueline said, adding that she was intent on making it on her own terms.

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"I was told, ‘Change your name to Muskaan.’ I remember these suggestions. My agency also thought, ‘Should we change her name? Jacqueline Fernandez is very Western. How do we crack the industry?’" she recalled.

She was also told to change the one feature of hers that she liked the most - her nose. "The nose job thing really made me laugh, because I always thought that I had a very good nose. And then I come here and someone says, 'Change your nose', and I was like 'No!'" she said.

Despite all the hurdles she faced as an 'outsider', she has still managed to carve out a place for herself in the industry and will next be seen in Attack alongside John Abraham.

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