People found joy in my 'misery and despair': Fardeen Khan

Fardeen Khan, who was recently seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Heeramandi’, made his film debut back in the 1990s, but a decade or so later, Fardeen stepped away from the limelight. He made his acting comeback with ‘Heeramandi’, but a few years before that, the actor faced a barrage of online trolling when his body transformation left people shocked.

In a recent interview, Fardeen said that he was shocked by the amount of attention he got even though he wasn’t actively a part of the movies at that time.

Talking to ‘Zoom’, he said, “I was surprised to have got that attention. But, of course, you quickly understand that people remembered you in a certain way. They were surprised to see me. I had let myself go in the way that I had.”

Fardeen said that it was ‘naturally painful and hurtful’ to be at the receiving end of such comments. “I mean I was a worldwide trending topic at that time and not for the right reasons. The way I dealt with it… having been around the business you develop some thick skin. You kind of teach yourself or force yourself to not take it personally to whatever extent you can. You can find humour in it. You can philosophise about it. You can learn from it. For me, I tried to do all three. It was a punch and I took it on the chin.”

Fardeen said that he was ‘not looking after’ himself in that phase and ‘could understand why people would have the reaction like they did’ but he was shocked by the degree of ‘meanness’ that people displayed. “The intensity or the degree of meanness was a revelation. It does surprise you that people would find joy in someone else’s misery and despair.”