Zareen Khan recalls how a director once wanted her to rehearse a kissing scene to ‘let go of her inhibitions’

Actor Zareen Khan, who made her Bollywood debut in 2010 with Salman Khan in Veer, has said that she was harassed by men in the film industry. Speaking to Pinkvilla, Zareen recalled how a film director once made an inappropriate suggestion to her.

Zareen recounted that early in her career, a director said that they should rehearse a kissing scene. “The person is like, ‘you have to let go of your inhibitions, you have to let go of inhibitions,’ and that time I was relatively very new,” she said. Zareen said that she refused. “What? I am not doing any kissing scene as a rehearsal,” she recalled saying.

Zareen also mentioned that later when she had established herself in Bollywood, another person said that they would “specifically look into the projects you’re getting” if she agreed to be ‘more than just friends’. The actor said that her self respect is of utmost importance to her and there is no guarantee that the person would have helped her even if she agreed to his conditions.

In the same interview, Zareen also talked about being compared to Katrina Kaif when she made her debut and all the criticism she got for her weight. She accepted that there was indeed some awkwardness between the two due to the constant comparisons by the media.

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Recently, Zareen was trolled on Instagram for a picture that showed stretch marks on her stomach. Zareen took the trolls head-on and even found support in actor Anushka Sharma. “Zareen, you are beautiful and brave and strong and perfect just the way you are. #appreciationpost #lookbeyondbody,” Anushka wrote on her Instagram story.

In her reply to the trolls, Zareen had posted lyrics from Paul Weller’s motivational song Wild Wood. “Don’t let them get you down, making you feel guilty about. Golden rain will bring you riches. All the good things you deserve and now,” she’d written alongside another picture of herself.

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