Zaira Wasim

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ar. Before her sensational role in Dangal, Zaira Wasim made a start to her career in acting in a television advertisement for Tatasky. Later she was also signed to play a younger role of actress Katrina Kaif for the film Fitoor but was dropped out last movement as director Abhishek Kapoor discarded her as she was little old for the role.

bra">Mukesh Chhabra, the casting director of Dangal had first visited several top notch school in India and a team had even visited Zaira’s school St. Paul’s International Academy, Sonwar, Srinagar in J&K. Zaira was selected for audition after she passed the first stage. Later these selected girls were further scaled down from 19000 to 25 in a time span of almost eight months. Finally the final tally of 25 girls was called for the final test at Mumbai. Failed for Kashmiri look but won for her histrionics Zaira came to Mumbai along with other 25 girls. These girls were first trained in an acting workshop. On the day of final selection Zaira was nervous as other girls selected had experienced. Some were working either in TV serial or theatre or advertisement films while Zaira had no experience. She had only done one advertisement film hence she was not confident of winning the film. When she gave her audition she was rejected as some felt she looked a typical Kashmiri girl and would not suit the character suitably. But Mukesh Chhabra, the chief casting director was impressed by her perfect Haryanvi dialect accent. Hence she was asked to wait while other left. Eventually, only four girls were selected and Zaira was one among them. These four girls had to fight out for winning the coveted role in front of Aamir Khan, which ultimately was won by Zaira Wasim. Though Zaira Khan won the role but her family created obstacle When Zaira Wasim gave the good news to her family after returning from Mumbai that she has won the role in Aamir Khan’s film Dangal, she had to face wrath, instead of applause. Her conservative parents and the family was against her joining cinema. Zaira had hard time cajoling her parents and family. Finally her aunty played an important role and convinced Zaira’s parents and her orthodox family. Her aunty even convinced Zaira’s school principal, who understood and gave her permission and compete support. In Mumbai her personality and outlook towards life changed Before coming to Mumbai, Zaira was an introvert who had few friends and loved to live in solitude. Despite living in the green and beautiful Srinagar she never went out and explored the valley. She confessed that near her house in Hawal, Downtown, Srinagar, there is beautiful mountain but she has never dared to travel around. But she disclosed that after her stay in Mumbai at Aamir Khan’s old house at Bandra, she discovered herself. Her outlook towards life widened and she became an enterprising and bold girl. She credits the friendly atmosphere at Aamir Khan’s house and at the shooting sets which helped her in killing her social apprehension. Zaira Wasim’s sacrifice for her role in Dangal Zaira Wasim had to a lot of sacrifice to grab the role of Dangal. The most painful experience was when she had to learn wrestling. Many times during the training she was hurt but she kept silent for fear of being replaced. Secondly staying away from parents for over a year was an emotional trauma that she sacrificed happily as she was working for an Aamir Khan film. But the sacrifice that made her weep a lot was the cutting down of her adored long hair. For weeks she would silently weep in isolation at the loss of her hairs. Zaira Wasim forthcoming films After receiving great accolades for her film Dangal, Aamir Khan has again repeated Zaira Wasim in his next home production Secret Superstar. In this film she plays the protagonist. She is a teenage Muslim girl who is gifted with talent of music. But she is opposed by her alcoholic father and the community. How she rebels against her community and rescues her mother from the clutches of her alcoholic husband is an inspiring tale. Aamir Khan plays an important role of veteran Musician and her mentor who craft her way to achieve her dream and makes her a Superstar! Like Dangal, the movie is again a motivating films for girls in India, particularly for the orthodox Muslim community, who force women to remain in hijab (veil)