“I cannot piggyback on him forever”: Actress Zareen Khan on his friend Salman Khan

It’s been over a decade since Zareen Khan made her debut in Bollywood with Veer. Even though the film failed to create magic at the box office despite the presence of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, it did open a few doors for Zareen. The actress happily gives all credit to Salman as it was him who launched her in the film industry. Having said that, she cannot piggyback on him forever, Zareen said in a new interview.

“I’m thankful to Salman because I would’ve never entered the industry if it was not for him. He gave me an entrance to the industry. But my struggle started after I became a part of the industry because then I knew nothing. Salman is an amazing person but he is also a busy man. I cannot be a monkey on his back and bother him for little things,” she told Hindustan Times.

Zareen further said that a lot of people still think that all the work she gets is through Salman Khan. “And that’s not true. Salman is a friend and just a phone call away but I’m not pestering him. And that undermines the struggle, the hard work that I’ve done,” she said.

When Zareen made her Bollywood debut opposite Salman in “Veer”, people were quick to notice that she had a passing likeness with Katrina Kaif. Addressing the same, Zareen earlier told Navbharat Times, “People come in the industry to create an identity for themselves and not to be someone else’s lookalike or shadow. I have struggled to make a place for myself in Bollywood for 11 years, but till date, people tag me as Katrina’s lookalike. No filmmaker wants to work with a lookalike or duplicate.”

Apart from Veer, Zareen is best known for films like Hate Story 3, Aksar 2, Houseful, and Wajah Tum Ho. She will next be seen in ‘Hum Bhi Akele, Tum Bhi Akele’ with Anshuman Jha and ‘Phatte Dinde Chakk Punjabi’ with Gippy Grewal.