Key facts
- Anjali Anand said her Bell Bottom role was only to have a terrorist fall on her
- Bell Bottom (2021) starred Akshay Kumar
- Anand has since built her profile through streaming projects
Actor Anjali Anand has delivered one of the more memorable lines of candour about Bollywood's treatment of supporting talent, saying of her appearance in the 2021 action-thriller Bell Bottom: "I was in Bell Bottom only so a terrorist could fall on top of me." The remark, delivered with evident wit, cuts to the heart of an experience many peripheral cast members know well but rarely articulate publicly.
Bell Bottom, starring Akshay Kumar and based loosely on 1980s hijacking episodes, was a high-profile production — one of the first major Bollywood films to release in cinemas during the Covid-19 pandemic. For a supporting actor, securing a role in such a project carries obvious appeal. The reality of what that role entails, however, can be rather less glamorous, as Anand's comment makes plain.
Since her early Bollywood appearances, Anand has found a more substantial platform in streaming content, where ensemble casts and character-driven narratives tend to give supporting actors greater room to demonstrate range. The contrast between her Bell Bottom experience and her more recent work seems to have given her both the perspective and the confidence to speak about it with humour.
Her comments have resonated strongly online, where many actors — particularly women — have spoken about being cast in roles that exist primarily to serve the male lead's storyline. Anand's specific, funny formulation of the problem has given that broader conversation a vivid new shorthand.