PLAYING FOR KEEPS

Not one to admit defeat easily, Fatima Sana Shaikh is slowly and steadily carving a space for herself in a cut-throat industry

- Suhani Singh

Fatima Sana Shaikh had it all going for her. After a couple of blink-and-miss roles, she bagged a key part in Dangal, playing the rebellious daughter to Aamir Khan’s stern patriarch Mahavir. The film earned Rs 374 crore at the box office, second only to Baahubali: The Beginning, Indian cinema’s highest-earning film. She soon landed a plum role in Yash Raj Films’ Thugs of Hindostan with Khan and Amitabh Bachchan as her co-stars. It seemed that nothing could stop Shaikh from fulfilling her dream to be successful in the industry in which she started out as a child actor (Chachi 420). However, after Thugs crashed at the box office, Shaikh wondered if her days were numbered. “It was hated and how!” says Shaikh. “I was heartbroken.”

She lost projects. It didn’t help that as a newcomer and an “outsider”, she knew little of how the film industry functions. So she did what everybody does: got a public relations agency to promote her. But then she asked herself what would she talk about? Says Shaikh, “What’s the point of giving interviews if there’s nothing to talk about?”