C H I T C HAT
I’ve seen how Muslim girls
beg for roles in Bollywood:
Sabeeka Imam
I
n the world of click-bait attention spans and a fiercely
competitive entertainment industry, few would choose
not to be taken at face value and stereotyped for their
looks alone when it makes progress all the less difficult.
And many would misperceive that someone as stunning as actor-model Sabeeka Imam could simply use
her looks as a gateway to success. “I was told a pretty
face can be banked on,” says an irked Sabeeka. But for
her, it’s all about making a mark through her credentials.
“For an actor, recognition and acceptance mean a lot.
When a critic points out that I was ‘well-casted’ in a film,
it translates as the fact that my acting had no appeal,”
she tells BOOM. With modelling assignments in hand,
cinema tugging at her heartstrings and all eyes on her,
she adds, “Artists are very shy creatures. They are loud
around only those they trust. Being stereotyped is the
last thing I’d want to be.”
Of British-Pakistani origin, Sabeeka came to the fore
only recently. With her face plastered on billboards and
hoardings across the country, she has quickly become
one of the most known faces in the modelling industry.
With that, she has film appearances to her credit in both
Bollywood and the UK. But she was never hungry for the
limelight and seldom came out against any criticism. Sabeeka has always been one of those who want to play
the “chor and the police” on screen — roles that entail character. But her Bollywood debut was branded as
exactly what she always distanced herself from. Vikas
Bahl’s Queen was H;