Dawn Images

Who doesn't want to know more about Mahira Khan?

In a two-part interview with FM89 host (and comedian) Saad Haroon, Mahira Khan gets candid and talks about her personal and professional life and defines the boundary between the two as a public figure.

1) On being a VJ

"I actually never wanted to be a VJ. Never."

"It just so happened that I became a VJ, and I was actually kind of like 'I don't want to be a VJ, I want to be in the movies.' So yeah, I always wanted to be an actor."

2) On motherhood

"Let them be free."

"You will be caged, let them be free. And then finally you will enjoy the freedom together."

3) On being 'public property'

"I wish I could draw the lines. There are no lines; the lines are blurred, because you are 'public property' - which I understand, we are. But how much of a public property am I and what part of my life is public? So what I do publicly is for public consumption."

"So what has happened with this phone is that it's become easy to pick it up and take a picture, video, etc. Secondly, being online has given you this privilege where you can say whatever you want, and the more violent, the more vulgar it is, the more attention it gets, so who doesn't like attention?"

4) On being a star

"Well... it's not so bad, to be honest."

"I think I've been lucky. I've been really, really, really lucky. These guys have see me through a girl who came back from LA, and I was just in my own little zone, got married, had a child, got divorced, came out of all of this, they've seen me through it all and they've been amazing. So when they troll me I'm like 'fine, do it, a little bit'."

5) On dealing with backlash

"It does affect me. I'm not going to lie about it, it affects me."

"If you're talking about this specific time? It's been traumatic, and it affects you. [But] That's the thing... I have to just move on. I have to move on with life because everybody around me depends on me. [Also], I have such amazing fans, they got together and they wrote letters, they sent those to me... and they got out there and they fight for me. Sometimes I don't need to fight my battles, they do it."

6) On signing projects

"It is nerve-wracking. It's nerve-wracking also because when you become successful what happens is, your options open up. You're being offered the best projects. That's why it's hard actually, It's always easier when you have only a project."

"Like during Humsafar, that's all I had [laughs], and I did it. Post Humsafar I've always had these options and they're great options, because you get the best directors coming to you, that's when you have to decide, 'Okay, how am I going to do this?' So I read the script, I decide on a few things, but there's this instinct that I kind of trust, that 'I want to do this. This is the time you take the risk'."

"Take all the risks that you want because this is the time you should be - you fail, you fail. Why should you take the risk when you're not doing well? Take the risk when you're doing well; so I decided to do Verna, I decided to do an out-and-out comedy (Saat Din Mohabbat In), which is a Dawn film, and I'm doing Maula Jatt."

7) On receiving criticism from the public

"We make the movies for them. They have all the right to."

This interview is part of FM89's '89 Questions with Mahira Khan'. To watch the complete interview, click here and here.