Call it resentment, jealousy or just plain speak, but Daisy Shah is telling it like it is and quite brutally so… While she did bag herself the best debut a newbie could dream of, opposite Salman Khan, in Jai Ho, it hasn’t been easy consolidating her position on the slippery slopes of Bollywood. While she has remained close to her mentor and is a regular fixture at the Khans’ celebrations, eventually she has to carve a niche for herself in filmdom; something that is easier said than done, unless you are Katrina Kaif.
What’s more, Salman continues to be very close to his ex, Katrina, whom he has just completed Tiger Zinda Hai with, and is supposedly also planning to cast in his home production. We can understand the waves of envy that might wash over Daisy Shah from time to time…

This showed during an interview with a leading daily, as Daisy opened up about how stars in Bollywood are categorised. According to Daisy’s simple assessment, the industry sees you as an item girl if you do item songs or as an actor if you basically focus on acting.
However, these ‘rules’ don’t count if you have made it big, Daisy points out. “If you have made it big in Bollywood, such as Kareena Kapoor Khan and Katrina Kaif, and then you do an item song, it becomes a ‘guest appearance’. That’s how it works. Sadly, that’s the attitude of our Hindi film industry.”

Unfortunately for the likes of Daisy Shah, this is how things work in stardom-obsessed B-town. Katrina can win all the wolf whistles for her item numbers like ‘Sheela ki jawaani…’ and ‘Chikni Chameli…’ but she would never be saddled with the Item Girl tag; a tag Daisy herself has been desperate to shrug off.

Asked if she is doing an item song in the Salman-starrer Race 3, she declares, “If I wanted to do an item song, I would’ve done it in Bhoomi when I was asked to do it. Why would I lie? I’m not interested in doing any item song, so I won’t cook up such a story. I am straightforward and don’t like doing jalebi talks. I can’t, even in my wildest dreams, say that I am doing an item song.”