Dilnaz Irani: Hardly get interesting work on screen that I get on stage

Mumbai, Dec 13 (SocialNews.XYZ) Even though it was a show headlined by Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen, the audience cannot forget the action-packed scenes between Sushmita and Dilnaz Irani who played the public prosecutor in 'Aarya 2'.

Dilnaz says apart from Ram Madhani and few other filmmakers, she mostly gets typecast and body-shamed and that the amount of interesting work she gets to do in theatre she does not get on screen.

Asked why she is not as visible on screen as she is in the theatre scene in Mumbai, Dilnaz told IANS: "I am actually not that choosy when it comes to shows or films but I am mostly typecast by casting directors. There are a few things also I have realised; that a good filmmaker like Ram Madhvani, Ashutosh Gawarikar or Hansal Mehta will never typecast you. But a lot happened when we go through casting directors. I am told many things about my look and also body-shamed.

"I am told that I am too fair and do not look Indian enough for a small-town girl casting. I mean yes I am a Parsi, I have a fair complexion and I look a certain way but creating the look for the character is the job of a makeup artiste! I am also told I look too 'south Bombay'. I mean, what is a 'north Bombay' look? Yes in India, a Tamil girl would look very different from a Kashmiri but what does that even mean when I get rejected by saying I look 'south Bombay'?"

Dilnaz also shared how she went through a struggle for her body image.

"I was also told on my face that I am fat and that I do not have enough social media followers to pull the audience. Initially, such things used to hurt me and I was working on my body image. I tried losing weight, changing my look and being active on social media. But no, I have stopped doing that because I have been doing theatre for all these years and as an actor every time when I perform on stage, all that matters is my craft and performance. So I am now only focusing on fine-tuning my craft as an actress. Rest will follow," shared Dilnaz.

Earlier she has appeared in the film 'Jodha Akhbar' where she narrated the character of Salima Sultan Begum. In 'Aligarh' she played Nameeta, the editor of the newspaper.

In 'Aarya', she played a public prosecutor and she even had action sequences with Sushmita.

Asked about what is coming next and Dilnaz said, "I have a web series releasing by next month and unless the release date is announced, I cannot speak about it. I have worked on another web show and a film is also in my kitty in which I played a journalist from Bihar. I have a dialect coach who worked with us to learn the Bihari dialect for the film. So, all the casting directors who think I am 'too south Bombay' would just feel surprised (laughs)."

Source: IANS