Saqib Saleem: It took me four years to realise one can’t sit at home after the first film

Actor Saqib Saleem says that he learnt everything on the job. But dealing with the fast-paced showbiz industry proved to be a bit overwhelming, initially.

Saqib says, “When I started my career, I was just 21. I didn’t know a single thing about what happens in the industry. [When] I gave my first film audition, they [industry people] said ‘yes, we want you’. I got great reviews; everybody said good things about me. I was told that I am the next [big] thing. It felt great, but one has no understanding as to how this world works.”

Saqib, who starred in Race 3 alongside Salman Khan, elaborates, “You think that ‘tumne acting kar di hai. Ab tum ghar baitho’. [Now] people will come and offer you work’. [However], things were exactly the opposite. It took me four years just to realise that you always have to look for work. Life definitely changes overnight, but you have to carve your own path.”

He goes on, “One thinks that one has to compete with this or that person, who is doing three films a year, whereas you are doing just one… [But I need to understand that] I cannot [seek] work when I’m not able to work! I understood it when I reached the age of 25-26.”

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