The Diplomat actor Sadia Khateeb on being an outsider: If I am not given an opportunity, how will I prove myself?
Sadia Khateeb shares why she isn't fully relaxed post the success of The Diplomat and playing the waiting game as an outsider even after working with big names
While her debut happened with the 2020 release Shikara, it was this year’s John Abraham-starrer The Diplomat that brought Sadia Khateeb to the limelight. However, she hasn’t yet processed the impact of the film. “I haven't got the time to sink it yet. I just know that I'm very busy lately. I'm continuously shooting and that’s the best thing,” the actor says.
While she does feel happy about the love she has gotten, especially after the film’s audience increased post its OTT release, Sadia Khateeb admits that she can’t relax just yet. She says, “I've just started out and I'm only three films old now. I just feel that I have a lot more in me to deliver, and you are only as talented as the opportunities coming your way. If I'm not given an opportunity, how would I prove myself? I just wish I can do more.”
The 27-year-old adds that being an outsider, the appreciation comes with a sense of fear too. “When people say something good, it gives me a sense of happiness, but it brings a lot of nervousness as well about when is the next opportunity coming where I'll be able to deliver better. How will I be able to show them that I'm better than what you have seen in the past three films as that will only happen if another opportunity will come. I cannot sit back and relax,” she says.
In her three films, Sadia has worked with the bigwigs of the industry—Vidhu Vinod Chopra directed her debut film Shikara, she co-starred with Akshay Kumar in Raksha Bandhan (2022) and The Diplomat had her alongside actor John Abraham. Still, she has had to struggle to get good offers. But she looks at it practically: “I did my debut in the most uncertain time. Right after Shikara released, it was COVID. Then Raksha Bandhan released during the second wave of COVID. The Diplomat is actually my first non-COVID release, so I cannot expect a lot of things to happen. But there are a lot of people who have done a lot of work even during that time.”
The actor adds, “I feel that ours is a very uncertain and destiny-driven profession. What is in your destiny will happen to you. I still don't know if tomorrow, I'll get another work, or where will I get my next paycheck from. It took more than a year for The Diplomat to come out, even with such big names backing it. So, all my calculations have failed because in our industry, nobody knows what works. The best thing you can do at that point is see if the work coming your way touches your heart. If it does, do it.”
She even has a wishlist: “I wish I can get a YRF or a Maddock film. I desperately wish that but till the time they don't come to me, until the time they don't see the potential in me, I have to keep working. I have to make my living and I have to keep satisfying my creative soul, and for that whatever nice work comes my way or whatever touches my heart, I must do,” she ends.
