Bollywood makeup artist was threatened her hands would be chopped off; Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan stepped up in her support

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“When I started, I must have been the second female makeup artist in the industry. It was dominated by men. And it was very scary,” she shared during an interview with news agency ANI. Namrata added, “Till then, there was only a makeup dada and a hair didi. Women were allowed to do only hair, while men did makeup. I didn’t even know that when I entered the industry. Whenever I was on set, the cine union turned up and harassed the producers and fined them for hiring a woman makeup artist. They would expect us to hide in vanity vans because they didn’t want us to be on set.”

Namrata also revealed that the situation escalated many times, with her family receiving threatening calls and messages warning that she would face consequences if she didn’t stop working. “My mother used to get threatening phone calls on the landline, like voicemails, warning that if I didn’t stop working, they would cut off my hands,” she added. Although her father asked why she was continuing despite the threats, Namrata told him that she loved her job and wanted to pursue it.

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Recalling her legal battle against the union, she observed that change arrived when the Supreme Court lifted the ban on female makeup artists in 2014, calling it illegal. “Once, I was dragged out of Filmistan by these men. I had to call the Goregaon police to come and protect my team and me. At one point, the union told me that I was never going to win the case.” However, she eventually did.

Nonetheless, she noted that the entire industry wasn’t against her and some voices did stand in support. “Sonam Kapoor was very supportive; she’s amazing. I had people like Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Farah Khan, Sameera Reddy, and Preity Zinta, who were very supportive of women working with women. During the making of Om Shanti Om (2007), Farah asked others, ‘Can anybody do what she’s doing? If so, I won’t take her.’ That support meant the world to me.”