Zareen Khan said that comparisons with Katrina Kaif ‘backfired’ on her career as the film industry didn’t give her a chance to prove her individuality.
Zareen Khan made her acting debut opposite Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in Anil .Sharma’s 2010 film Veer. Back then, the actress grabbed a lot of eyeballs for her uncanny resemblance to Katrina Kaif. Though Khan went on to feature in films like Aksar 2, Housefull 2, Wajah Tum Ho and Hate Story 3, her career didn’t pan out as expected after a star-studded launch.
Recently, in a ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit, Zareen admitted that she was ‘literally like a lost child’ during her early years in Bollywood as she didn’t come from a filmy background. She also addressed constant comparisons with Katrina at the beginning of her career.
The actress said, “So when I entered this industry, I was literally like a lost child since I don’t come from a filmy background so it made me feel really happy being compared to Katrina as I was her fan too and found her really pretty. But it backfired on my career as the people of this industry didn’t give me a chance to prove my individuality.”
On being asked to share her experience of working with Salman Khan in her debut film, Zareen called it ‘intimating’ and added that playing Princess Yashodhara in Veer was the most challenging role of her career.
During her interaction with fans, Zareen said that it was quite hard to make it into the film industry as she was an outsider. When asked to point out one thing she dislikes the most about Bollywood, the actress picked “People working on the basis of friendship rather than talent” as her answer.
When a Reddit user suggested that she would have had it easy in her career due to her connections, the actress clarified, “NO…you are mistaken…I don’t really have a lot of connections in the industry and I also don’t really know how to do small talks.”
Zareen was last seen in Disney+ Hotstar film Hum Bhi Akele Tum Bhi Akele in 2021.