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Actor Hani Taha, who has studied at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa), was interviewed by another Napa graduate Jibran Khan on Thursday evening to discuss the former’s journey from Napa to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) in London.

Taha, in response to the first question about her professional background, said she worked in Pakistan as a journalist for some years after which she flew out to the US. In America, she worked for Al-Jazeera.

She went to pursue her MA in journalism in the US after which she began working for Esquire Magazine in NYC and then as a producer for Al Jazeera.

When she joined Al-Jazeera, 70 per cent of the staff was Muslim. At the time, the Charlie Hebdo incident and the Peshawar school attack happened. She was organising a protest against the school attack but nobody came with her.

She realised that [in the US], they didn’t have any concern for our people or children. “With journalism, you’re teaching to the choir. I thought we needed to talk to a wider audience and for that, only the medium of entertainment could be used. I came back to Pakistan.”

Here she was offered a role in a film and to seek guidance she went to seasoned actor Khalid Ahmed. She didn’t do the film because she had moral objections to the lead actor so told Khalid Ahmed she’d rather do a small role in theatre and grow as an actor the right way rather than a big part in a movie.

She was later given a chance in the play Yahudi Ki Ladki in which her performance was appreciated by the likes of the late Talat Husain. But she felt she wasn’t getting acceptance from Napa therefore she enrolled as a full-time student to prove she’s a good actor.

On her journey to Rada, Ms Taha said the shock of Zia Mohyeddin’s death, along with some other factors (for example, she felt she wasn’t getting the maqam she deserved) — she started feeling depressed.

She told her husband she couldn’t do it anymore. But her husband said, “Why don’t you apply to Rada? I got miffed at him because it’s harder to get into Rada than to Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford. He replied no harm in trying.

Since there was no application fee, I applied expecting that I’d be rejected. “Two or three weeks later I received an email that you’ve been selected to move on to the next stage and we’d like to audition you. It got me excited and nervous. They sent me a big package in which I was required to do a contemporary monologue, a classical monologue, a movement piece, a creative piece and a two-minute video about myself.”

She then talked about the time she spent at Rada (to do an MA in Theatre) and the difficulties she had to face.

Originally published in Dawn, February 14th, 2025