Too much mental, physical stress: Nargis Fakhri says she became unwell while working in Bollywood

Bollywood actor Nargis Fakhri has spilled the beans regarding her absence from Bollywood. Fakhri, who has worked in hits such as Rockstar, recently shared she had become unwell while working in the Indian film industry. 

Talking about her absence from the industry, Fakhri recalled to News18, “I became unwell. I was going through too much mental and physical stress. I had a lot of physical ailments that were interfering with my daily life. It was very difficult to ignore these problems. My body, in a way, was telling me that it was not able to handle it. I knew it in my mind that I had to take a break because I wasn’t the happiest person.”

The actor believes that actors often need more than just a few days of break to be themselves. “In an industry like this, you’re constantly running on a hamster wheel, you’re always in a rat race, and you’ve to keep up because you don’t want to fall back. You’ve to attend meetings, you’ve to do ads… it just never ends! You only get a couple of days off between projects. The pressure and the mental stress that you go through are heavy even though that depends on the kind of films or characters you’re doing. You’ve to invest your soul when you’re acting,” also added. 

Fakhri shares that despite these hiccups, she kept at it by focusing on the silver lining. “I kept working because I was blessed to have the opportunities and I didn’t want to just throw them away and walk off. I definitely enjoyed some bits of it but I had my share of unhappy days, weeks and months,” she recalls and adds, “I had to push through. I didn’t want to just give up. I was pushing myself so hard that my mind felt disconnected from my body. I really needed rest.”

Fakhri further shared that being away from her support system affected her during the initial years of her career when she was trying to find her feet in the film industry. She went on to comment, “If your family is close to you or they live close by, there’s nothing like it. Coming home to family, who you share a good relationship with, is very important because they ground and recharge you. If you don’t have that, you’re just left flapping in the wind with nothing to hold onto. I’m a very strong person and I could’ve continued but it was a necessary decision to leave. I had to talk to myself and say, ‘Hey, what’s the point of being here? Why are you listening to other people? Listen to your body, listen to your feelings.’”

Going out of sight and hence, out of mind is a phenomenon that many actors have faced in the past. But Fakhri wasn’t scared about it when she decided to press the pause button. The actor remarked, “I remember telling my agency about it. They told me not to do that and cautioned me that if I go out of sight, I would be out of people’s minds. I can’t deny their fears, there’s definitely some truth to that. But what was important was the answer to the question, ‘Why would someone choose to go out of sight and how much do they want to be there out there anymore?’”

Earlier, during a conversation with Hindustan Times this year, the actor revealed that she was in talk with four scripts and could soon make a comeback in Bollywood. “Things are going to happen this year for sure and you will see me on the screen next year. I am waiting to see myself back on the screen,” she said. Fakhri was last seen in Torbaaz in 2020.

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