JOIN USFor me, becoming a household name overnight and to suddenly get that success, was so new. Unlike other actors who were refined, I was new and literally went into hiding, wondering what had just happened,” says Pakistani actor Mahira Khan whose life changed post her portrayal of the character Khairad Ehsan in Humsafar, one of Pakistan TV’s most popular serials.
To those still nursing the Humsafar hangover, she says, “By the fifth week of shooting I knew what Khairad was. In fact, till the very end I kept saying she shouldn’t go back to Ashar. But it’s the writer’s version. It’s Khairad who goes back, not me. Samina Peerzada told me that this is what the character does, not Mahira,” she says explaining her attachment to the role. “Humsafar was a game changer. By the fifth episode it had picked up its ratings and changed the way people watched television in Pakistan. Everybody attached to Humsafar became successful instantly. We started endorsing brands,” says Khan elucidating on how the show affected the business of the Pakistani drama industry.
The business soared but Khan was emotionally cut off at a personal level. “I suffered a personal loss and would come to the set feeling low and sad. But all those scenes where we are shown crying, we were actually laughing” she says as one points out her director Sarmad Sultan Khoosat calling her a ‘method actor’. “My other directors say that I am spontaneous beyond belief, where every take is so different that you can’t edit and put it together.”
“I am very confident but I am also not very confident,” she says, adding, “I second guess myself all the time and I don’t watch the monitor. I want to feel all of it, but the truth is you can’t feel all of it. So my directors’ have more confidence than me,” before they cast her in any of the projects.
But Khan ensures that she gives her 100 per cent because “The day I give my 60 per cent, which is rare, I drive my director crazy!”
So does she have a soft corner for women-centric roles? Without admitting to it she explains “I just did a serial called Sadqay Tumhare. It’s about a man, but what dialogues! The script was like reading a book. That’s how I want to spend 60 days of my life, day in and day out, in that character. If I don’t enjoy, I can’t lie to myself.”
Sounding politically correct on almost every issue, she even defends her choice of scripts. “It is not that I choose every script which has ‘tough’ written on it. But with the choices I have made, the script is the key. Second is the director – who will make sure that if it is a good script, it is taken a long way,” says Khan expressing her love for films
like Highway.
The discussion shifts to Bollywood and the actor doesn’t shy from expressing her desire to work with directors such as “Mani Ratnam, Vishal Bhardwaj, Zoya Akhtar... I know my answers now.”