The conversation around the existence of Bollywood camps has come under the spotlight after actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas said that she was “cornered in the industry” at one point in time. Singer Amaal Mallik also spoke about the same in a series of tweets and how it directly impacted his work. Now, actor Aahana S Kumra too shares that this is a regular practise and surely not a myth. In fact, because of Bollywood camps, she claims that she was out of work.

“At the moment, I am shooting for a project in Dehradun. But I didn’t get any work for the last two years. In the industry, I have noticed that actors who hang out with a certain set of people get hired again and again. I am not part of any of that circle. So if you ask me, if it affects me getting work? I’d say yes, it does,” says the actor, adding,

“It also bothers me that people have made such a circus out of this business. And I am like, ‘Whoa, you are going to hire this actor just because he/she hangs out with a certain star?’ But this exists, and what can one do about it?”

However, Kumra, who has appeared in projects such as Inside Edge, It Happened in Hong Kong, Marzi, Betaal, Sandwiched Forever and Call My Agent Bollywood, is not the one to give up. She reveals that during the lean phase, she channelled her energy into something positive and decided to create content for herself.

“It gave me time to write. I travelled a lot, and the more I stepped out of the city, the more I realised that there are so many stories... I decided that I was not going to beg people to hire me. I feel they will hire me when they really need to, even though it is really unnatural that people just don’t consider you even after you have worked so much. They just disregard you. Till then, I am turning into a writer and working on a story,” shares the 37-year-old.

Kumra lastly shares that she has “never really been part of any camps”. “I don’t know which people are in which camp. But for me, my camp is my close friends and my college buddies,” she ends.