Actor Fatima Sana Shaikh, who will soon be seen in Anurag Basu’s Metro…In Dino, she says she has learnt to filter out social media noise and speculation about her personal life. In an honest chat with Hindustan Times, she opened up about career insecurities, online rumours, and the mental clarity she’s developed over the years.

Navigating ensemble casts with trust

Fatima is part of an ensemble cast in Metro…In Dino, which also features Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Neena Gupta, and Anupam Kher. With so many leads, is insecurity a factor?

“It’s very easy to get insecure when there are so many actors and you don’t know what the script is,” Fatima admitted. “You can worry about the length of your track or what others are doing.” But she added that this isn’t something that troubles her on Basu’s set. “We all trust him. We know that even if our role is short, it’ll have a strong arc. We won’t be forgotten.”

Handling attention on her personal life

With Metro…In Dino, exploring modern love and its complications, Fatima touched on the challenge of navigating relationships in real life, especially under the public eye. Her name has been linked with actor Vijay Varma in recent headlines, but Fatima clarified at a recent press event for Aap Jaisa Koi, “No one is there. No good guys. They exist only in films.”

Reflecting on the emotional toll of constant public scrutiny, she said, “Initially, it affected me. But then I realised—people only think about someone else for one second. After that, they’re focused back on themselves. Everyone’s too busy thinking about their own lives.”

She added with a laugh, “Woh Instagram ya Reddit pe likh dega ‘oh iski life mein yeh chal raha hai’—but he’s just as caught up in his own problems. I don’t give it that much importance anymore.”

What’s next for Fatima

After Metro…In Dino’s release in theatres on July 4, Fatima’s next project, Aap Jaisa Koi, will stream on Netflix starting July 11.