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Alizeh Shah is done with showbiz. In her latest Instagram story, the actor made it clear that her speaking out against harassment, late payments and bullying in the industry was not a cry for attention or projects.

“To everyone who thinks I exposed those people because I wanted work… you have no idea how much that thought disgusts me,” she wrote.

What followed was an account of how deeply showbiz has scarred her. “I live with PTSD because of what I’ve been through in this industry. I was broken to the point that I started hating myself. Speaking out wasn’t for attention; it was my only way of freeing myself from the darkness.”

Shah said she doesn’t want offers or sympathy — she just wants space. “I don’t want your projects, your offers, your fake sympathy. I pray every single day that I was never a part of this degrading world, where people made me suffer 12 hours a day on set, treating me like nothing. I am never going back, not after what it did to me.”

The trauma, she said, has eaten her alive. “There are nights I cry until I can’t breathe, days where I’ve puked my guts out because the memories make me sick. This pain is real, it lives in my body, in my heart, and all I ask is to be left alone.”

Shah’s post is a follow-up to a post she made in July in which she discussed the industry’s darker side — harassment, withheld payments, toxic set environments and even her infamous 2021 ramp fall, which she said was orchestrated and then mocked by colleagues. That confession sparked an apology from Juggan Kazim, who proved that it’s never too late to do the right thing, even if, and especially if, you’re a senior.

We’ve recently seen many other actors open up about payment issues in the TV industry.

What Shah has described goes beyond one person’s pain. It’s about the long-ignored treatment of junior actors by production houses and seniors, the culture of bullying disguised as ‘discipline’ on sets, and the silence enforced through professional blacklisting.