It's funny cause I never had a day off or I would have a day off.
But when you have one day off and your family and friends are like 24 hours plane
ride, how do you actually get to go and see them and recharge?
So when it came to the time or when it
came to the point in my life when I had to ask myself,
why am I working so hard when I can't even enjoy the fruits of my labor?
First I said, oh, I need a few months off.
And people were like, few months.
If you take a few months off, you're going to be gone.
People will take your place.
You'll just disappear off the map.
I think the first thing is to let go of fear and let go of Insecurities
and your ego and understand that you don't have to take every job.
And if you're not happy somewhere, you don't have to be there.
Yes, it looks scary because you don't know
what's next, but there's always something next.
I tend to minimize my achievements,
which is very strange because a lot of people like my friends laugh.
They're like, I have other friends that think
that they're 100 and then you're 100, but you think you're a 50 everyone.
For some reason, even when I was not even in India anymore,
people still were so interested about whatever I was doing or who I was dating.
So that seems to be my luck because even
if I had the biggest film coming out, they would still want to know that part.
Hi everyone.
This is Avenash Loh ana and you're watching PinkVilla.
Our guest started out with a film called
Rockstar and over the years she's proved to be one in real life too.
Please welcome the very versatile Narges Fakri.
Thanks. Hello.
Hi, how are you? Very good.
How are you? Very good, thank you.
You know, I'm going to start this
interview by asking you you recently fell off from a bicycle.
How are you?
That's a good opening. I must say How are you?
It was a very bad fall.
Yeah.
Oh, God, no.
But actually it was pretty funny because I
posted it, obviously, because I thought it was hilarious.
And yes, I'm so grateful.
I didn't break a tooth or my nose or anything.
I was just riding a bike.
And then I turned around because someone called my name and I smiled.
But then when I turned back, I was too late.
I couldn't get the break.
And I just was like I knew in my mind as
I'm riding, I'm like, I'm hitting this thing.
I'm just going to go.
So I hit the pole and then I flipped over. But you're okay now?
Yeah, I'm okay. Touchwood.
Yeah. I mean, I was laughing.
I put the whole Swiping thing on Instagram.
I saw that you were at Cannes recently and I saw one of your interviews post
that and you said you had these pre-event jitters and you couldn't believe
that people called you beautiful and they were complimenting you.
Nargis you've been a supermodel even before becoming an actor.
Do you still get astounded by when people come and see you looking so pretty?
Because I think it should be obvious to you now.
I mean, not astounded, but it's nice.
It's nice to hear it for sure.
I think back in the day I was always awkward when people would compliment me,
but I've learned to now accept the compliments.
So I just say thank you.
Yeah, but I'm not astound.
But definitely I knew I looked good at Cannes.
I mean, did you see my dresses?
They were so beautiful that I can't deny.
I'm not going to lie about that. Yeah.
But yeah, most often I usually used
to have a hard time accepting compliments, but now I'm good.
I realize I should be grateful and accept
these compliments and just smile and say thank you.
Sure. The picture and the video that you posted
about you falling off on the bicycle, you captioned.
And it was very interesting.
As you said, when you fall in brackets, fail, do it with a smile and in style.
But remember to always pick yourself up and keep going.
Don't stop, don't quit.
Very important Nargis.
But what have been your moment when you felt like you have to quit and then you
gather yourself up and say, no, I'm going to keep going.
So I don't know if it's more like I
shouldn't say quit for me because I try not to quit.
But I think that a lot of people need
to take time off because we live in a world where it's like 24/7 work work
and people don't prioritize self care enough.
And if we work so much,
you're going to burn yourself out and then what's going to happen?
You're going to get unwell.
You're not going to be mentally okay or physically okay.
So not more about quitting because I think
quitting just has a negative connotation attached to it.
It's more just taking time for yourself.
And I put quit and fail, but no one really
fails because from your failures you always learn something.
And the point was really to just pick yourself up and keep going because
from those failures or if you quit or take time off, you can recharge, regroup,
and then learn from your mistakes and then become better.
So that was the actual thought behind it. Yeah.
This reminds me, Nelson Mandela's quote he once said, I never lose.
I either win or learn. Yeah.
And I really agree with that.
That is really true.
Yeah, sure.
You mentioned taking a break.
Do you think it's high time we normalize taking a break?
Yeah.
I think the pandemic made people realize also what was really important,
like family and taking the time for yourself
doing activities other than work that nourishes your mind, body and soul.
So I think people are thinking about that now.
I hope people are thinking about that now. They need to.
Sure. And prioritize mental health first.
Yeah. Because I always say if you're not healthy
in all aspects, like mind, body and soul, how can you be of any good to anyone else?
Yeah. When you decided to take a break,
were you worried that what if you lose out on big work?
Actually, it's funny because I never had a day off or I would have a day off.
But when you have one day off and your family and friends are like 24 hours plane
ride, how do you actually get to go and see them and recharge?
So when it came to the time or when it
came to the point in my life when I had to ask myself,
why am I working so hard when I can't even enjoy the fruits of my labor?
So I had to make a decision.
And yes, I was told if you leave first, I said, oh, I need a few months off.
And people were like few months.
If you take a few months off, you're going to be gone.
People will take your place.
You'll just disappear off the map and you're doing so well.
You're at the peak. How could you leave?
But then I just had to take that chance.
And I'm happy I took that chance. You are?
Yeah, I'm happy I took that chance.
I'm happy that I wasn't scared into continuing in the rat race
because then it would have been even worse for me to keep going.
Yeah, I agree.
But when people come and tell you acting is a very insecure business.
I always say when people come and say you
or you lose your spot, does it clear on your mind?
At the time it didn't because I think I
realized something else was more important.
And I do believe that everyone could do
anything they want in their lifetime, but not at the same time.
So I don't have an issue because
at that time it was my time to take time for myself.
As you can see, we're sitting here today
so many years later, and I'm back to work and I'm back to doing
things and things are going pretty quickly.
So it also shows me that I might not be
where I was, but also I'm not the same person I was.
So without growth and change, like what is life?
And I don't have the same desires that I had many years ago, you know what I mean?
So maybe now I don't want to be in that position where I was before or I
don't want to live that lifestyle working all the time with no break.
I'm trying to learn more balance in life. Sure.
And how do you do that? I mean, your lives are anyway very busy.
It is very busy.
So I think the first thing is to let go of fear and let go of insecurities
and your ego and understand that you don't have to take every job
and if you're not happy somewhere, you don't have to be there.
Yes, it looks scary because you don't know
what's next but there's always something next.
There is always yeah, you have to have some kind of faith.
I can't agree more.
I always say taking care of mental health
is not a one month process or a few months process.
It's a continuous process.
What are you doing about that.
For me?
I've been avid reader of self help books since I was like 15.
Okay, I say that this life is always a journey back to yourself.
That's what I'm trying to say where
we have to constantly look at who we are and how we're changing evolving
and growing with our work, with our regular life, with ourselves.
So for me it's always reading like I love psychology a lot and I'm the type
of person that wants to be better and do better and I realized through
my interactions with other human beings and relationships with whether it's
a partner or friends or family, they reflect certain things back to me.
And even if I don't like certain things
about other people I always look at myself and say, why don't I like that?
Is that something within me?
So I guess you could say I'm a very introspective type of person and I always
take the time to think about myself and how I can be better.
I always hold accountability for what I do and when I say I try not to blame or
victimize myself and I know that I have the power to change my entire life or
environment based on my thought process So I always say that people need to
get their mental health in check first Like what negative things are you saying
if you catch yourself, if you're aware you can like slap yourself
And say Hey! No. Don't say that or don't think that
And I think with time and practice then you get better at it
Yeah. self-love and self-worth is important
Yes. Yeah. That's whole another self-love & self-worth
Topic. But definitely catching yourself when you're
being negative towards other people because
what is the point of being negative towards other people that doesn't even make any sense
That's a reflection of your own inner securities or negativity
I mean this we can go on forever on that but
Meditation helps, reading helps I watch a lot of podcasts & videos
Exercise. Oh my Gosh! The miracle of exercise
Even taking a walk for 30 minutes could change your hormones in your brain
What you eat. Yes. If you're eating lots of bread and cheese and junk food
Of course, your mental health is not going to be well because it all works together so,
Yeah. Yeah. You've done Rockstar
My favourite film of yours is Madras Cafe.
The spy as well. There is really a diverse kind of roles that you've played over the years.
But do you think you didn't really go out and publicize it enough?
to make people realise the versatility you have
I think that I
tend to minimise my achievements which is very strange because a lot of people
like my friends laugh, they're like
I have other friends that think they're a hundred
and then you're a hundred but you think you're a 50.
Like so I guess I just minimise a lot of things
about even you know the way I look or the work I do or my intelligence
so I haven't figured out exactly why I do that or maybe I have but that's a whole other topic
So yeah I didn't really get to
yeah like talk about how diverse I am because, I am very talented in many different things
And people haven't had a chance to see all that
I remember when I first started having interviews and people realised how funny I was
Yes. You know and sometimes they think
'Oh pretty girl', she's not funny or she looks like a...
dork, you know they have so many assumptions about you and look at my bike flip
How amazing was that
I'm definitely an action-comedy type of person
Yeah. I'm also into like I'm very
Into reading about different things not only about films like I love health & wellness, psychology
And random topics that I was never taught
I'm a very curious person like I'd be curious about your job and I'd love to ask questions you know about
what you do? So yeah I would say I'm very versatile and did not show it off to people
But that's gonna change now?
I mean you know it's hard people change, yes
As we say people evolve. Evolve.
yeah so I think maybe I'm more secure in the fact that yes
I can be proud of my achievements and I should let people know like
Hey look at all the these movies I did look at all these characters I played
And look where I came from and what I've achieved
you know I'm not only pretty, I am smart I'm creative I have all of that
It's in my bag. Yeah
Like I've said you've worked so much, done so much of
versatile work, do you think the attention on your personal life and your relationship with Uday
also took away the attention needed to be on your work because you never spoke about it I know
But it was always reported.
I think everyone's for some reason even when I was not even in India anymore
People were still so interested about whatever I was doing or who I was dating
So that seems to be my luck, even if I had the biggest film coming out
they would still wanna know that part Yeah. And I mean
I don't really read about other celebrities but I'm not sure if they're very
Like if they hound
Other people so much but also I'm very real and authentic and you know
I put myself out there, so it's my fault as well I'm not such a secretive human
because I feel like I've nothing to really be secretive about because I'm just regular
You know a normal human, I don't do anything weird. Yeah
But you know what I mean so...
Yeah I don't think being in love is anything weird it's beautiful
Yeah I agree
Why should you not endorse it?
Of course, and I think that's part of human
the human search we all want to love and be loved right you know
yeah
I have a quote of novelist John Updike, he once said "we are most alive when we are in love''
yeah aren't we?I agree yeah
Have you found love again?
That I would like to keep to myself until somebody puts a ring on it.
yeah but I'm just gonna be quiet on that
So that has changed basically you have possibly learned you know let's keep that seperate
Yeah to a certain extent I guess like people don't need to really know your business and
where you know I want people to know more about my work
Right now. So yeah that part has changed
which is a good thing more professional
Yeah more power yeah yeah
Absolutely. Do people still walk up to you for Rockstar
Do they still come up to you and you know-
Yeah people will still come up and say that was their favourite movie and they watched it a hundred times
I'm like really? you watch it and I actually could believe that they probably did because it was-
It's a good movie. yeah yeah
So it's very sweet and when they call me Heer instead of Nargis yeah it's nice
Do you still? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
Can you imagine?
I think that's the biggest achievement for an artist, right.
Yeah I mean that story was just amazing
I mean it's a love story, hello! that we just talked about
Sure. What's happening next now? I mean what's in the pipeline?
I really want to see so much of you in the future as a fan
Thank you. That's so nice of you well I'm now in the talks with a few people
And I'm hoping to start at the end of this year
So, you won't get to see me until next year
Sure. Are you- But you're seeing me now
Yeah and I hope to see you very soon again as well
But I mean are you in India for a while or do you keep coming back, going back
because sometimes I really want you to clarify it because sometimes people assume you're staying there.
I am here & there, here & there I am in and out
But yeah I come in, I come in for a couple of weeks and then I go out because actually,
I work all over, like I was in Greece doing a shoot then I was in London taking meetings
Then I was in Dubai doing stuff, so because of what I do because I'm so international
I get to be everywhere. Yeah. And nowhere but everywhere.
So the world is my home. Yeah. Yeah I would say that I'm really a true global citizen
You are and you're a brave artist as well and I've said that in the beginning & I say it again
Thank you so much, Nargis this was a lovely conversation
Thank you, yes.
Hey if you like this video don't forget to
Like, share and subscribe PINKVILLA.