7 months ago
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Alizeh Agnihotri, who stepped into Bollywood with the 2023 heist thriller Farrey, belongs to the Khan family. The 23-year-old actress is the daughter of actor-director-producer Atul Agnihotri and Salman Khan’s sister Alvira Khan Agnihotri. During an exclusive chat with Bollywood Bubble, Alizeh got candid about wanting to make a name for herself and not only being famous for being Salman Khan’s niece.
The actress also spoke at length about her debut with the Soumendra Padhi directorial, the reason behind choosing it, having Salman Khan presenting and promoting it and the benefits of belonging to a filmy family. Scroll below to know all she said and watch the full video at the end.
Alizeh on choosing to debut with Farrey
Talking about why she didn’t look for a project with a big-name director or a glamourous role to debut, the actress said, “I think that for me, I’m only competing with myself. I only think about myself and what’s good for me. I knew in order to be taken seriously in this business, I have to do my best – that’s a given, and I have to do something that will surprise people and that will be unexpected because if five people have done this, and it has worked for them, how do I know that it’s going to work for me as well?”
She continued, “I need to play to my strengths. So that’s what the exercise was with choosing a film like Farrey and going down that part and really committing to making a good film. It doesn’t matter who the actors are, who the director is – it doesn’t matter. We need good actors, we need good directors, good scripts and everything else will work out in itself. The positioning of the film is not important.”
On belonging to a filmy family
Talking about being brought up in a film family and the impact it had in grooming her to become an actor, she said, “This is my new thing, favourite thing to say in interviews – even though I’ve done one film, because of my family I feel like I have the experience of 50 years of working in this business.” She continued, “It’s because everyone only does that (works in Bollywood). There is nobody in my family that does anything else except my brother maybe. We are all film lovers. It’s all we speak about, it’s all we do. “
She continued, “I learned so much about films even before I actually had the privilege of working in them. That has taught me a lot. When I’m on set I feel like I’m at home. I don’t have any ‘Oh my God, where am I’ (feelings). I don’t have any of those emotions. It’s so comfortable for me. It’s a space that I’ve been around since I was a child. I was actually waiting for the day I could be back on set for my film.”
Talking about maintaining her privacy and not flaunting her family ties, she said, “I think just wanting to earn it (recognition) on my own has always been the biggest thing for me. I know that even now, after Farrey, if I put myself out there, it’s always going to be connected back to someone else and I really want to be known for my own work. At times, I even overcompensate for that. I’ll not take a picture, I’ll not do all of that. I’ll not post unnecessarily because I want to earn it and that’s always been the journey for me.”
Alizeh on the positives of hailing from a filmy family (benefits of nepotism)
While talking about being followed by the paparazzi post the release of Farrey, Alizeh said, “It helps me knowing that people have seen the film. (Earlier) I was because of my family. And us being producers of the film, I didn’t test for this film, I already was part of the film. Soumendra (Padhi) sir came in and before he decided to do the film, he put me through some workshops and all. That’s what happened but I can’t say that I have auditioned. I can’t say all that because it’s not what happened. Soumendra sir had to be okay with working with me because if we don’t get along then what are we doing here?”
Talking about having it easy because she’s a star kid, Alizeh said, “I have a lot more (privilege). I’m never going to be in denial about this. I have a lot more access because my family is from the industry. I experienced it firsthand because of Sahil (Mehta), Prasanna (Bisht) and Zeyn (Shaw) when (I saw) how hard it is for people who don’t come from the industry, so I never want to say ‘Oh, I had any negative (encounter), any pressure. Because it is my family’s film, that is why we made a film like Farrey because people know that we have the access and the resources let’s do something good and interesting. Let’s give people what they want instead of just rubbing it in their face and doing what people normally do for their debuts.”
Alizeh on Salman Khan promoting Farrey
Talking about Salman Khan’s stardom helping in promoting Farrey, Alizeh said, “It’s been the biggest blessing to have him on board. We are really grateful he liked the film. You know, family is family but a the end of the day to actually go ahead and promote the film, to give so much support while getting nothing back… So really grateful for his support.”
Watch the full interview here:
