Alizeh Agnihotri: It’s hard to create your identity

Debuting with Farrey, Alizeh on dropping last name to shed baggage of being Salman’s niece and the price of belonging to legacy family

One of the first things told to us about Alizeh, by her PR team, is that she doesn’t use her last name. Producer-actor Atul Agnihotri’s daughter and Salman Khan’s niece is actively doing her bit to shed the baggage of legacy. As her maiden film Farrey hit cinemas yesterday, she wants the audience to know her as Alizeh, a debutant actor. That’s it. “It’s hard to create your identity. I have a sense of individuality, but the world sees you through a prism of what they believe you are about.

Journalists come to talk to me, and they ask about my family. I’ve realised you need to scream very loud in order to be heard, when you are associated with legacy,” she says. At the same time, in the industry that is often accused of being nepotistic, Alizeh is aware that her privileges outweigh the problem of perception. “The disadvantages are hardly a big deal in the larger scheme of things. I will hopefully do a few films, prove myself, and people will start seeing me for me.”

In director Soumendra Padhi’s Farrey, she plays a bright student who secures admission in an elite school and gets entangled in a cheating racket. Her first film is divorced from her superstar-uncle’s brand of cinema. “Every generation of the family should offer something different. Salman mamu has done his great roles, and my nana [Salim Khan] had established himself in a different [stream]. What can I offer that’s different? Over time, I gauged my taste in movies. When Farrey came my way, the fact that it was unexpected, drew me in.” 

Farrey and the upcoming The Archies are bringing back the genre of young adult stories, reflecting the different facets of their lives. She agrees, stating, “Class was about social media, Farrey is about the pressure to perform. The Archies would be about what young people stand for.”

And what does Alizeh stand for, we ask her. She says with confidence, “When you are living in times like ours, you have to know what you want to represent. What I loved about Farrey was that it has a female protagonist, who isn’t even likeable. She is challenging society. I’m conscious about how the female narrative is represented. We know so many different kinds of women, but only a stereotypical sort is reflected on screen. What about the others?”

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