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Actor Resham sparked an online debate earlier this month when she dumped plastic waste into a river while on her way to Charsadda to help flood affectees. She was called out for her actions and apologised soon after. Now, the actor says it was the first mistake of her career and showed disappointment that no one from her fraternity spoke up for her.

Journalist Maliha Rehman spoke to her on Friday about the viral dumping video. In response, Resham said, “I was heartbroken because it was the first mistake of my career and people didn’t forgive me but I still apologised.”

She added that a living nation is when people admit their mistakes and accept them, which she did. But she also expressed disappointment in fellow stars who didn’t speak up for her or vouch for her for the efforts and work she does off screen for people. “But it’s alright, if someone doesn’t say anything about me. Everyone goes through this period once in their lifetime and I don’t have any complaints,” she said.

When asked about her apology video and the reaction that followed afterwards, Resham said that despite apologising people continued to “troll” her.

“We started our career long before social media and I didn’t know it would be this toxic. It’s becoming very toxic. If we look at it on daily basis, when they [social media users] troll people, they don’t understand that their harsh words could hurt someone. I think people have also committed suicide because of this due to mental tension. These people who troll give a lot stress. Anyhow, everyone goes through a bad time and it passes in the same way,” she said.

Resham credited actor Armeena Khanfor being the only celebrity who stood by her and thanked her for not letting her lose the strength and courage along the way. She said she’s very thankful to her.

How it all started

On September 9, a video clip started doing the rounds online featured the actor stepping out of her car on a highway to throw bread and meat into a river as an act of sadqa. What irked people was that as Resham stood by the edge of the flyover and recorded herself throwing the food into the river, she also threw the plastic containers and bags the food came in.

Prior to her apology video Resham had given an interview to The Friday Times where she said there are more pressing issues to worry about. “I am in Charsadda as we speak. I have been been quietly helping thousands affected in the calamity-hit district. But, of course, people are only interested in trolling me. I do a lot of good too,” she had reasoned.

On September 14, Resham took to Instagram and shared a clip of herself apologising to not only her followers but the entire nation. “First of all, please accept my apology because what happened shouldn’t have had happened. It happened out of carelessness and was not done intentionally and for that I apologise to the entire nation. I personally am against littering and to keep our country clean is our duty. I’m also a human and every human makes mistakes, so did I,” she had said.

She called it the “biggest mistake” of her career and said that she’ll try to make sure it never happens again. She ended her video with an apology from the “bottom of her heart”.

The following day, she was criticised by activist Shaniera Akram who said, “Without really knowing it, she single handedly produced a nation wide campaign on ‘what not to do with your rubbish’. Not even a company spending thousands on a clean Pakistan campaign could get the publicity she did.” Later, however, she expressed her appreciation of Resham’s apology.