Zareen Khan poses for a photo.

Sakeena Banday, Gulf Today

Bollywood actor Zareen Khan, who made a debut in Bollywood movie ‘Veer’ opposite Salman Khan but still could not make it big in the industry, said that she is 'more than a pretty face', and was never given a chance to break out of her image as a Katrina Kaif lookalike.

Her physical resemblance to Katrina Kaif and her body size always kept her in the headlines.

The actor in a recent interview talked at length about how she felt being compared unfavourably to Katrina and how body shaming affected her.

Zareen Khan is still clueless how the “lookalike thing” suddenly cropped up. The actress said in an interview to a local media that a random photo from her Facebook handle was circulated even before her interviews were out claiming that she was Katrina’s lookalike. "Yes, in the beginning, it was the whole lookalike thing... Honestly, I don't even know from where it had creeped out. Even before my pictures or my interviews came out, a random picture, from my Facebook account, was being circulated with claims that she looks like Katrina,” she said.

"Back then, social media was not as powerful as it is today, and we were majorly dependent on media houses and newspapers. So, I somehow feel that the public was not really given a chance to see me and have a perception of their own. It was fed to them as gossip. Our audience is also a little gullible that way, believing whatever they are fed instead of forming their own opinion,” Zareen Khan added.

In the film ‘Veer’, Zareen had to put on some weight because she played the role of an 18th-century princess and her character needed that but that clearly didn’t do down well for the actress.

“It was a very confusing phase for me because for Veer, I had to put on weight. The makers had asked me to put on weight because I was playing an 18th-century queen and they wanted to keep it authentic. That did not go down well, and I was fat-shamed. I was called ‘Fatrina’. Even when I went out for events, nothing good was ever written about me; they would talk only about my weight. I was completely lost. I did try my best by working out two-five hours a day. After being in the loop and the vicious cycle for a very long time, I understood that I'll be a big-boned girl, no matter how much weight I lose. Rather than torturing myself, I realised the importance of my mental peace and that nothing compares to it,” the actress said earlier.

This is not the first time Zareen Khan has opened up about the ordeals that she had to face because of her body weight.

Earlier too, the actor spoke about how people made her uncomfortable with their comments about her body.

“People around me made me feel uncomfortable and conscious with their comments. In school, whenever students tried to bully me because of my body weight, I would give it back to them. So, after a point, they were intimidated. So, I would say we should rather avoid those people knowing that they are just negative people. I am a wide structured person and I cannot cut my bones off,” IANS quoted her as saying.

Zareen Khan before (left) and after losing around 50kg.

Zareen Khan is not the one to be intimidated by trolls. The actor gave it back to them when she was trolled for showing her stretch marks on her stomach in a photo on Instagram. "For people who are very curious to know about what’s wrong with my stomach, this is the natural stomach of a person, who has lost 50kg of weight, this is how it looks when it is not photoshopped or surgically corrected.

“I’ve always been someone who believes in being real and embraced my imperfections with pride rather than covering it up,” she wrote in her note.