Zaira Wasim

r mother is a teacher. Zaira studied at St. Paul’s International Academy in Sonwar in Srinagar. The family is originally from Srinagar.

Zaira Wasim made her debut in the biographical sports film Dangal in 2016. She portrayed the young Geeta Phogat. The film was one of the highest grossing Indian films and had grossed over 2000 crore worldwide. Zaira was signed by director Nitesh Tiwari . The film began in September 2015 and she had finished her part by December in the same year. The film is the story a biopic of the two Phogat sisters who were Pehlwani amateur wrestlers. Aamir Khan plays their father as Mahavir Singh Phogat who trains his two daughters Geeta Wasim and Babita (Suhani Bhatnagar) to become India’s first worldclass women wrestlers. The film and the two girls received positive reviews from the worldwide fan club and the critics.

Her next was the musical drama Secret Superstar released in 2017 where she starred as an aspiring singer. The film went on to be the highest grossing film with the female protagonist.  Both the films that she acted in were backed by Aamir Khan Productions and she earned several accolades including the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Dangal and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for the Secret Superstar. For her last film appearance in The Sky Is Pink in 2019 she garnered a nomination award for the Filmfare Award for the Best Supporting Actress. Same here she also won the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (formerly called the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement in the year 2017.

In March 2019 Zaira Wasim completed the shooting for her next film The Sky Is Pink a biopic of motivational speaker Aisha Chaudhary a 19-year-old girl who died from Pulmonary fibrosis.  Co-starred with Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar. The film released around 11th October 2019, had earned her the nomination for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award.

On 30th June, 2019 Zaira announced her retirement and requested her fans to take down her pictures from the social media as she wanted to start a new chapter in her life away from Bollywood and with her acting career, she was in the conflicting phase between her career and religious beliefs or her faith. In 2020 she went off air completely.

Therefor Zaira Wasim announced her departure from Bollywood citing a need to align her life with her religious beliefs and take on to her spiritual journey whereby she wanted to only focus on her faith and her personal peace. She had expressed she wanted to live a life away from the public eye and thus remain away from the film industry and focus on her education and her faith.