Bollywood’s dusky beauty, known for her playing lead in multiple-hit horror movies has recently completed 20 years in the Hindi film industry. She entered the world of acting with Abbas-Mustan’s multi-starrer film Ajnabee in 2001.

In a recent interview, Bipasha has revealed some untold secrets of Bollywood she battled with when she was beginning her career in the industry. The actress also appreciates herself for not following the rulebook and taking the other way. She is now living life without any regrets.

Elaborating on the times when she was new to acting, Bipasha quoted, “It was back then when I met my first hairstylist, Kaushal, who basically taught me what were the rules of being a heroine at that point of time. And they were quite funny and hilarious to me. As an actress, you apparently had to hide in those days. But I was very different. I guess that’s why the bohemian tag came to me very fast. My choice of roles was very different. My presence was very different. I did not look like the quintessential, fair, petite, timid girl. I looked quite feisty, fiery, and sexy.”

On being asked to open up on the rules she was told to abide by, the actress went on to share some strange instances. Recalling one such incident, Bipasha narrated, “I remember I was having iced tea in a glass while shooting Ajnabee in Switzerland. My hairstylist came and told me, ‘Everyone is thinking that you are drinking whiskey. She asked me to drink it in a cup to avoid this perception. Then this other time, I was wearing a backless blouse, and she told me, ‘Actresses don’t dress up like this’ and that I’m only supposed to wear it on-screen.”

For Bipasha, there existed hypocrisy in Bollywood regarding the kind of clothes an actress was supposed to wear on and off the screen. She told, “I used to ask if you can’t wear something in your normal life, how can you wear it on screen. In fact, I’ve had experiences where big actresses would comment on other girls wearing tiny shorts off-screen, and when they were the ones who’d wear it on screen. I could never understand these double standards.”

The actress also revealed that in the past, when she was on a set, she had announced that her boyfriend is coming to see her and everyone got weird there after hearing that. I was asked why you’re talking about your boyfriend. It’s a very personal thing. I was like I’m not ashamed of my boyfriend and don’t need to hide him.”

Not only had this Bengali beauty faced mean comments on her clothes or lifestyle but also on her skin color. “I used to love sunbathing all the time, even though I’m dusky. But I was told, ‘You’ve to walk with an umbrella all the time’. I understand now why umbrellas are required. Back then, in my me-time, I was told that you shouldn’t tan because you’re already dusky. But none of these things really stopped me,” asserted the 42-year-old actress.

On a concluding note, Bipasha thanked her director Abbas-Mustan for treating her equal to all the senior actors in the movie and not as a newcomer.