Actor Nargis Fakhri is known to keep her romantic life away from the public glare. Despite rumours that she was dating actor Uday Chopra at the beginning of her acting career, she chose not to comment on it. It was only recently that she revealed that she was dating him for about five years. Over the years, rumour mills also suggested that she was in a relationship with American director Matt Alonzo and then chef Justin Santos. And now, as per reports, Nargis is dating a Kashmir-born entrepreneur named Tony Beig but the actor, once again, remains tight-lipped about it.
In an exclusive chat with News18, she reveals that the reason behind not opening up about her personal life stems from the fact that the spotlight, more often than not, is cast only on it as opposed to work. The Rockstar (2011) actor explains, “I’m honest and authentic and I don’t see a problem if people ask me about my personal life. But the issue is that they highlight that instead of important stuff like work. I’m not embarrassed or shy about talking about my personal life. But to be honest, I would rather highlight my work.”
In this day and age where social media and the paparazzi culture have given people an increased access to an actor’s personal life, Nargis wishes to keep certain aspects private. “There are some people who deny or don’t talk about theirs [love lives] but that’s also fine; we need to respect their privacy. This business is very strange. Everyone knows everything. So, what’s left for me? I need to be given something that’s only for me,” she states.
Quiz her if this curiosity about who she’s dating bothers her, and she says, “Even the phone knows what we think because they register our keystrokes. Social media knows what we usually look at. The internet has distorted the definition of privacy. It feels like we’re almost naked. I feel annoyed sometimes thinking why do people care about who I date? But I try to be nice about it.”
The 43-year-old, however, jokes about creating a separate forum where she plans on only talking about love. “If people want to know about my relationships, I should probably do a podcast about it and give advice to people on relationships. Many of my friends have told me to do so,” she says with a laugh.
Known for her candour, the actor, who was recently seen in a music video titled Fayaah Fayaah alongside singer Guru Randhawa, also reveals that she had ‘a relationship therapist at one point which was very interesting’. Prod her further and she remarks, “I don’t know how I feel about them. It didn’t work eventually. We know through experience if what we’re getting into is the right thing or the wrong one. I think we know it for relationships too but sometimes we ignore it.”
The one thing that she has learnt is to prioritise herself and she believes it’s numero uno for a relationship with another person to work. “The idea is to learn about yourself. If you love yourself and have boundaries, values, morals and self-respect, you won’t make bad choices, be it in terms of friendships or relationships. Even family members can be toxic and sometimes, we need to distance ourselves from them. In fact, you need to distance yourself from any relationship that’s not healthy for your mental well-being and that’s okay,” says the actor, who will next be seen in the film Shiv Shastri Balboa.
