Fatima Sana Shaikh

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Fatima Shaikh loved acting and dance since her younger days Fatima Sana Shaikh was born in Hyderabad to Hindu Brahman father Vipan Sharma from Jammu City and Muslim mother Raj Tabassum from Srinagar City of Jammu and Kashmir. Due to father’s business they moved to Hyderabad where Fatima was born but when she was quite young her parents shifted to Mumbai. She did her formal school education from Mumbai’s prestigious St. Xavier High School and did her graduation from Mumbai’s prominent Mithibai College. Since childhood she had passion for dance and drama. She learned dancing and perfected her nuances in acting by doing theatre.

Fatima began her career in films at the age of five While she was in Hyderabad she was spotted by South film legend Kamal Haasan who was making a Tamil comedy Tamil film Avvai Shanmugi (1996) which was a remake of Hollywod film Mrs. Doubtfire. The Tamil version was hit and in 1997 Kamal Haasan decided to make the film in Hindi as Chachi 420. In both the versions Baby Fatima, played the role of Bharti, the daughter of Kamal Haasan and Tabu. Fatima was just five years when she did her debut film. She says she does not remember much as she was quite young but she does remember she had great fun working with Kamal Haasan. Today when she looks back she said, “Kamal Haasan is a great actor. As a child I did not knew much but today I curve to act with him and learn the nuances that Kamalji puts so painstakingly in his acts that make him outstanding.” Before Dangal Fatima had worked with Aamir Khan Shocked! Well, it is true. Before Dangal, Fatima had worked as child star with Aamir Khan in the hit Ishq (1997) directed by Indra Kumar. In fact she had become so popular that she even worked with ShahRukh Khan in the film One 2 Ka 4, and did another film with Suniel Shetty Bade Dilwala. Fatima quit Bollywood for education but returned only to find failure While working in films she found her education missing hence she quit cinema for some time and focused on her studies. Though she completed her graduation but her heart lay in films. Hence she kept struggling in Bollywood and did many small roles in films like Tahaan, Bittoo Boss and Akaash Vani. She even ventured into TV and was seen in TV serial Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo as Suman. But all her efforts seemed failure and she was disappointed of not being able to win fame. In her interview on famous TV Show Koffee with Karan, Fatima candidly confessed that before she was selected for Dalgal, she was unemployed for three years! After failure in Bollywood Fatima took up photography After a series of failure Fatima faced much humiliation and disappointments. She realized that it is a tough nut to crack to get a good offer in Bollywood. Besides there is much competition and treachery, recalling her tough days she said, she had to undergo severe tribulations despite having the credential of being a child star and having worked with top filmmakers like Santosh Sivan in his film Tahaan Besides rejections, the trauma of being short-listed and then declined the role was most agonizing hence upset with film industry, she took up photography. She joined a studio in Mumbai and began work as a photographer. She even assisted a cinematographer for two advertisement films, in the hope of returning to her dream destination – Bollywood, if not as an actress but as a cinematographer. Fatima had declined Dangal as she felt she was miscast for the film During her struggling phase Fatima received a letter from the casting director of Aamir Khan Films Dangal for the role Geeta Phogar. She was excited but when she searched about the wrestler champion on Google her excitement fizzed out as Fatima felt she neither had the appearance of Geeta Phogat nor the muscular physique like her. Hence she dropped the idea of attending the audition test. She called the casting director and honestly told him that she is not the ideal cast for the role but the casting agent insisted her to give audition hence without any expectation she gave the audition and forgot. But to her pleasant surprise after a week she received a letter that she has been shortlisted and has to undergone another audition. This time Fatima’s excitement knew no bonds as she wondered there would be just 3or 4 girls to compete but to her horror there were 15 girls and this again punctured her enthusiasm! Despite selection in audition, Fatima had fear of being replaced at the last minute Since Fatima had undergone several times the experience of being short-listed and replaced at the last movement hence she was under constant fear of being replaced. As a result she confessed that she had lost confidence and had even started stammering but thanks to film director Nitiesh Tiwari and Aamir Khan, they understood her and extracted best out of her. Fatima recalled, she was under constant fear of being replaced hence even while the exhausting process of training the actress had kept herself moving despite injuries and pain. She did not skip a single day of her training session that lasted for nine months. The reason behind the fear was that Aamir Khanji had kept a secret over selection hence Fatima had a sense of insecurity.” Intensive training made Dangal a great film When the film Dangal was released on 21 December 2016 it received a standing ovation both from film critics as well as the audience. The film fetched all the three top honors at Filmfare Awards winning Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor! Further the film became the First Indian film to cross Rs 500 Crore in Domestic circuit. Fatima believes all credits goes to intense training that the girls did at Aamir Khan’s old house in Mumbai. All the four girls were given strenuous physical training from 4 a.m. They had to do rigorous work out until they were drained out. A special coach, Kripa Shankar Bishnoi, a wrestler, who won gold medals for India at the 2005 Commonwealth, was employed to train the girls. The girls learnt wrestling six days a week for nine months nonstop! All this led to Fatima giving her hundred percentage performance and becoming a star.