In an interview with BBC’s renowned talk show, HARDtalk, the actor discussed the ban on her Bollywood debut film Raees and the effect of Verna’s release in Pakistan.
Mahira Khan has managed to stay positive in the limelight, despite all the controversies and her recent interview was yet another example of charming demeanour.
Speaking on BBC’s renowned talk show, HARDtalk, Mahira discussed the ban on her Bollywood debut film Raees, the effect of Verna’s release in Pakistan and why it’s a good time to be a female actor.
When asked if this is a good time to be a female actor in Pakistan, Mahira responded in the affirmative. “Yes, I would say so. I think it’s a good time to be a female in this world at the moment.”
Responding to a question about being female and in the public eye at the same time and whether it is a sensitive place to be, Mahira said, “I would say it used to be. Right now I don’t think it’s sensitive to be in the public eye. I think it’s sensitive or it’s a little bit challenging to break barriers, to sort of do the things that you want to do.”
When asked about the movie industry and how the tradition of going to the movies was lost to many people after the rule of General Zia ul Haq as the number of cinema houses plummeted over the decades and things are just starting up again, Mahira noted, “That’s actually a good way to put it: lost. Because it was there once upon a time and then we suffered through, I guess politics affected it and there was a lull. What it did was it did two things: one, of course cinema got lost somewhere in all of this. The second thing it did, which was a good thing was that all these writers and actors started coming towards television. That’s why currently and for very many years we have a very strong television industry. Because all these people didn’t really know where to go and all of the arts sort of converged into TV.”
However, what struck most from the interview was the revelation the actor made about working in Bollywood.
“Bollywood was never really the aim actually,” Mahira said. “I mean sure you could argue that I could have done more films there, for sure I could have. But right after Raees I had already started working on Verna, even before our artists got banned in India. My focus was always Pakistan.”
The ban on Raees, which did not release in Pakistan and became a point-of-no-return for the actor in India because of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s ultimatum to Pakistani artists, may have been perceived as a ‘big jolt’ to Mahira’s career but she has moved on.
“Currently I just feel it’s just something else to be working and be part of this movement of the film industry in Pakistan at the moment,” she said. “Because how I look at it, is that 20 years from now when either my son or today’s kids want to become actors, we would have set this industry for them and they won’t have to struggle so much.”
Mahira currently has two films slated for release this year, 7 Din Mohabbat In and Maula Jatt 2.
