Saqib Saleem : Every industry has all sorts of people, don’t know why we judge the industry so severely

While the Hindi film industry has come under the scanner with many accusing it to be this big bad world where there is a culture of sidelining, groupism and drugs, actor Saqib Saleem feels that the narrative is getting a bit out of control.

“I love the industry this is the place that has given me work and this is the place that had given me identity. I am just a boy from Delhi and this place has given me love and respect. But I just feel that like every industry has all sorts of people and I don’t know why we judge the industry so severely at all times, may be because of the attention and glamour attached to it. I am still understanding it,” Saleem shares.

The actor, who has shot his new web film Comedy Couple amid the pandemic, says that his experience in the industry ever since his debut in 2011 has been great. He also stresses that he does not want to delve too much about the various debates about outsiders vs insiders or nepotism that are raging on. 

“I have made great friends. I operate at a different level. I don’t need validation from everybody. I need validation from people who are close to me, till the time I get it, I am happy. I am not competing with anybody. I am generating the work that I like to do and I am doing it , irrespective of how the industry functions. I just know how I would like to function,” the 32-year-old asserts.

Saleem also feels that nobody is really ever forced to choose this profession and it is a choice that one has made, so there is no reason why one should cry foul about the industry.

“Nobody told me to come to Mumbai and be an actor. I decided that myself. If it was easy everybody would do it but it is not. Nothing in life is easy, so I think to blame the industry for anything is wrong. It is individuals who take decision that determine who they are, that is not necessarily what the industry is,” he says, while adding, “There are good people and bad people, you decide who you want to be with, and work with.”