Belonging from an esteemed family, VJ-turned-actress Mahira Khan is the first to have opted for a career in the showbiz industry. As per Mahira Khan, her family wholeheartedly supported her ambition to become an actress. The only minor resistance she confronted was from her grandmother who belonged to the old school of thought and was always asking her to act as decent as possible on screen as the baton of family’s respect was now in her hands. Khan also revealed that saying “no” is important. “Saying ‘no’ at the appropriate instances took me where I am today,” the actress said. Talking about how this big change of stardom had impacted her life, she said that after acquiring all this fame, her life has entirely changed. Now her daily routine is all about strict work deadlines and sleepless nights. “To attain success, one has to sacrifice something and I sacrificed my sleep,” Khan said. Talking about her future plans, Khan thinks that working for Hollywood has its own unique charm. “The work done there is very professional and if I get an opportunity, I will definitely work there. My Bollywood experience was not so good so I am in no mood to venture in another Bollywood movie,” she said. Khan is not very optimistic about the future of conventional movies. She is of the view that slowly but surely all movies will go digital. “This trend of digital movies is catching up globally and it will hit Pakistan also in near future,” she maintained. According to her, comparing Lollywood to Bollywood is totally wrong. “Bollywood is a huge industry whereas our industry is small but still in our available resources, we are doing a good job and we should continue what we are doing,” Khan said. Expressing her views about her recently released social drama film ‘Verna’, Khan said, “‘Verna’ is a message to the society that if justice is not given to someone, then he/she may take law in his/her hands and this will create anarchy in the society. ‘Verna’ is a movie where the director has tried to show that everything revolves around power. The more powerful you are, the more this world will be attracted to you. This thirst for power is a dilemma in our society. People want to acquire power by hook or by crook.” Unlike her role in ‘Bin Roye’, where she had to wear many hats, her role in ‘Verna’ is straightforward and is devoid of any grey areas. She thinks that out of all characters, her role in ‘Verna’ has been the most demanding one. Although Khan tried to convince her director to shoot ‘Verna’ in Karachi, filmmaker Shoaib Mansoor preferred Islamabad, because he wanted the wintry backdrop of the Margalla Hills to be depicted in the various moods of the film. Khan usually doesn’t enjoy shootings outside Karachi but in ‘Verna’, she loved each and every moment. On being asked about her experience with her co-actor Haroon Shahid, who made his acting debut in ‘Verna’, Khan praised him for his supreme talent as an actor and singer both. She said that they shared many fun moments on the sets of the film. According to her, Haroon Shahid is a supportive co actor and is an eager learner as well. Khan and Shahid travelled the length and breadth of Pakistan to promote ‘Verna’. They appeared on various television shows and visited colleges, universities and cinema houses to promote their movie. Answering a question about promoting her film, Khan said that it was important to promote the movie as it helped them spread their message to the masses and prompted them to come and watch it, but along with this promotion, the content is the king. “This promotion could sustain the movie for only a few days but if the content is good and the story is powerful, only then movie can survive for a long time in cinemas,” she said. Published in Daily Times, November 20th 2017.