Meet Bigg Boss 20’s Arishfa Khan, ex-Crime Patrol child actor with 29 mn followers - The Indian Express
Salman Khan-hosted Bigg Boss 20 premiered less than a month ago, and has already been going viral for its iconic moments. Among them is the 23-year-old contestant Arishfa Khan’s repeated fights with fellow housemates over labelling her as bacchi (child). Fans even dug up nostalgic videos of a much younger Arishfa delivering a similar dialogue in Crime Patrol (I am not a child, I am 12 years old), turning the Bigg Boss moment into a trending social media meme. Little do people know that Arishfa, who has over 29 million followers on Instagram, has worked extensively as an actor.
Arishfa was born on April 3, 2003, in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. After her family moved to Mumbai, she did her schooling from Ryan International School. She later shifted to private schooling due to her early acting career. However, she had to leave her education midway because of her acting schedule. Her mother, Arshi Naz, who worked as a stuntwoman in the film industry, used to take her daughter along on sets.
During an interview with Humans Of Bombay in 2020, Arishfa recalled going with her mother to shoots when she was young. “I remember, she’d drive me to work everyday and stay back on set till the shoot was over. She’d feed me food during the lunch breaks. She even gave up her career for me; I was too young to understand the sacrifices she’d made,” she shared.
Arishfa Khan entered the entertainment industry as a child and started featuring in several television shows in 2012. The actor-content creator was just seven years old when she bagged her first role in a daily soap – Chhal – Sheh Aur Maat.
As a child artist, she worked in shows such as Ek Veer Ki Ardaas…Veera, Crime Patrol, Jeannie Aur Juju, Uttaran, Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, Gangaa, Meri Durga, and many TV ads. Later in 2018, she landed her debut lead role in the show Papa By Chance, on Star Bharat. She also featured in various music videos. In December 2021, Arishfa launched her own beauty and makeup brand called Mishy Me.
After working in the entertainment industry for over a decade, Arishfa switched to short-form video content, considering the boom of digital media and reels. The Bigg Boss contestant went on to become one of the most famous Indian TikTokers and had more than 25 million followers on the content creation platform, before it was banned in India.
Her content type mostly included dance, lip-sync, fashion, beauty and lifestyle videos. She has built an audience of 29.6 million on Instagram and 3.15 million subscribers on YouTube. The latter even awarded her a Golden Play Button in July 2020.
Before entering the Bigg Boss 20 house on September 6, Arishfa Khan last appeared in the music video Ishq Abhi Baaki Hai, opposite Samarthya Gupta. The video was released through Kashish Music, sung by Alexandra Joy with music and lyrics by Abhishek Thakur.
Talking about Bigg Boss, Arishfa’s initial days in the house already began with arguments. Her disagreements and verbal fights with Aamrapali Dubey and ScoutOP.
