Bollywood and its glitzy, glamorous is a tempting industry. After all, it gives you everything: fame, money, power, luxury. Once you break through the fort, it is highly unlikely that someone would want to get out. However, that is not the case for all actors.
Here’s why 7 of these actors made the controversial decision to quit B-town:
1. Imran Khan
Khan joined the industry at the age of five, and was an instant success after delivering the hit Bollywood project Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na in 2008. But after his last film, Katti Batti in 2015, he disappeared from the public eye and quit acting. In 2014 he did an AMA session on Reddit where he answered various questions about nepotism, Bollywood parties and what made him consider leaving. According to the Hindustan Times report, one Reddit user asked him how he feels when he occasionally sees himself on TV or on the internet, and Imran answered: “I don’t watch TV… I’ve worked hard to avoid living in the ‘Bollywood Bubble’, eating, breathing and living movies. It can get very suffocating.” Imran’s friend Akshay Oberoi confirmed that the actor had big goodbye to the acting world for good. He further added that Imran might prefer directing movies.
2. Amrita Rao
Amrita Rao quickly became a household name after her role in Vivah. As her career was at an all-time high, she fell in love and soon tied the knot with her now-husband RJ Anmol. However, the audience was taken aback as Rao disappeared from the film industry quickly after. When asked if RJ Anmol had urged her to leave the film industry, Amrita told the Times of India in an interview, “That’s true. Anmol could tell I was turning down big movie roles because I wasn’t comfortable doing kissing scenes and lovemaking sequences on camera. As a result, he decided that now was the time to focus on developing a wonderful personal life and tying the marriage. He did ask me to leave my job, and I was utterly devastated. However, after a few days, he informed me that, in retrospect, his demand was ridiculous and that he was sorry.”
3. Sana Khan
In October 2020, actress Sana Khan announced that she was quitting the showbiz world in order to serve humanity and follow the orders of her creator.
4. Zaira Wasim
Zaira Wasim, the Kashmiri girl who became an overnight success after her debut in Dangal, decided to bid adieu to her film career in 2019 because “my relationship with my religion (was) threatened.” In a long post on her Facebook, the 18-year-old cited religious reasons behind her decision to quit her promising career. Her last big-screen venture was last year with Shonali Bose’s The Sky Is Pink.
5. Tanushree Dutta
Dutta pioneered the #metoo movement in the Indian film industry by calling out her co-actor Nana Patekar who harassed her on the sets of the 2008 movie Horn Ok Pleassss. The injustice she faced in the industry caused her to move to the US and take an indefinite break from Bollywood.
6. Asin Thottumkal
Asin Thottumkal tied the knot with Rahul Sharma in 2016 and then swiftly quit acting. The actor had issued a statement on her Instagram page that said, “For all my media friends who still have not got the message, I’m once again reiterating that I have stopped taking up any assignments and have wrapped all my commitments before my wedding itself including my brand endorsements. Request people to stop making assumptions about my assignments and work as I’m not doing that at this stage. Had made this announcement before the wedding itself.”
7. Riya Sen
In multiple interviews, Sen admitted that she was sexualized in films and music videos at the young age of 16. The way she was portrayed made her uncomfortable and she decided to stop working in Hindi movies.