Bollywood star quits acting over Islamic faith

MUMBAI: A Bollywood actress who starred in India’s highest-grossing movie said she is quitting acting because it is incompatible with her Islamic faith, sparking a social media storm.

In a lengthy social media post published Sunday, Zaira Wasim said she was leaving the profession because becoming a Bollywood star had “damaged” her relationship with God. The 18-year-old won major awards for her two film roles to date and was considered a rising star of Indian cinema.

“This field indeed brought a lot of love... my way, but what it also did was to lead me to a path of ignorance, as I silently and unconsciously transitioned out of imaan (faith),” she wrote on Instagram.

“While I continued to work in an environment that consistently interferes with my imaan, my relationship with my religion was threatened,” she added. Wasim, from the restive Indian-administered area of Kashmir, shot to fame in 2016 when she starred alongside Bollywood icon Aamir Khan in the hit movie “Dangal”.

She won a National Film Award for her role as an aspiring female wrestler, and the film went on to become India´s highest-grossing movie. It also enjoyed massive success in China. Wasim followed that up with a Filmfare Critics Award for her outing in 2017´s “Secret Superstar”, in which she played a young, Muslim singer-songwriter who becomes a YouTube sensation.

Bollywood has a long tradition of Muslim movie stars — the three Khans: Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh have dominated box offices for the last three decades. There are far fewer Muslim actresses however — in particular from the divided Kashmir region — and some social media users took to Twitter to criticise Wasim for invoking Islam as her reason for stepping away from acting.