Fardeen Khan On Being Body Shamed Before Heeramandi Comeback: "Traumatic"

Fardeen Khan on being fat shamed, zeenat aman’s post on his dad and much more

Fardeen Khan’s comeback in Heeramandi after fourteen years is nothing less than a treat for his fans. The actor won many hearts with his performance as Wali Mohammad in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali show. Before his comeback and massive physical transformation, Fardeen Khan was body-shamed for his looks. Now, in an exclusive conversation with NDTV, Fardeen Khan broke his silence on being body-shamed. Calling it “traumatic”, the actor said it was a “rude shock”. He said, “To be honest, I was completely disconnected. I don’t remember exactly when this happened. But I know it was post 2014-2015 I think, I am not sure. I have been away for over four-five years, in my mind, I was not actively involved in the industry at all. So, I was surprised that I even got that attention to begin with. To put it mildly, it was a rude shock, of course, it is traumatic that people can feel better about themselves (by) putting somebody else down.”

The actor continued, “I mean it’s a trend all over the world where people feel it is all right because they can remain relatively anonymous. And only because of that, they feel empowered to be able to say whatever they want without taking into account somebody else’s feeling.”

Fardeen Khan revealed that singer Adnan Sami extended a helping hand during that phase. The actor said, “I remember correctly, yes there were few messages. Actually, there is one person in particular who I would like to mention, Adnan Sami. He came to my support and was very vocal about it and publicly wrote about it. So, I will always be grateful to him for that. It really meant a lot.”

Fardeen Khan also opened up about the time when he was away from the public eye. The actor said, “I needed some personal time off after I lost my dad. Then I shot a movie after that. But I needed some personal time. Natasha (Madhwani) and I had challenges having children, so also needed time to work on that. Of course, being away for this long wasn’t planned.”

Fardeen Khan added that he has missed out on a lot of things. He said, “That’s one of my big regrets. I don’t have many regrets but this one is a big one. So much changed, you know and I wasn’t a part of the change. From the way the films were conceived, films were told, the quality of the films to the audiences changed. You are talking about 14 years; I have come back after half a generation. And there are people who have no idea who the hell I am, so in so many ways I literally do feel like a newcomer.”

On the work front, Fardeen Khan has Visfot in the pipeline.