Former Bigg Boss contestant Mandana Karimi opens up about scarring Bollywood experience: ‘If I had a daughter, I would be worried…’

Mandana said that she grew tired of being labelled as ‘difficult to work with’, just because she wasn’t agreeing to everything that she was told to do. Often, she said, people would tell her that she doesn’t understand Indian culture, which annoyed her even more. She said, “It’s an industry that, if I had a child right now, I would be worried if my daughter wants to be a part of Bollywood. The industry in India is very different. It runs on who you know, who your father is, who your family is. Yes, later on, it depends on how good you are and how talented you are, but it’s very competitive.”

Mandana said that she considers herself competitive, but certain situations can be ‘unhealthy’. “For me, Bollywood was like that. I tried to find good people to work with… I’m not saying that everyone is the same, there are some amazing people that I worked with… Unfortunately, in my career, I didn’t have that many of those people. I had people who were very disrespectful, they treat you like, ‘Oh, she’s a pretty girl, she doesn’t have support, we can do whatever we want’.

Mandana finished as the second runner-up on Bigg Boss season 9. She has appeared in films such as Roy, Kya Kool Hain Hum 3 and Thar. Most recently, she participated in the reality show Lock Upp, hosted by Kangana Ranaut.