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Before stepping into the world of acting, Zainab Qayoom was a successful model, having reached the peak of her fashion career in 2004 with a Model of the Year nod from the Lux Style Awards. She got together with her old friend from the fashion industry, Asim Tiwana, on his show Star & Style on Sunday and talked about shifting careers and finding her calling as an actor.
Qayoom recalled announcing her retirement as a model during one of Tiwana‘s shows and told him she went on to host a few TV shows herself before moving to dramas. “At some point, I got tired of looking into a camera and saying, ’Welcome, I am your host ZQ,’” she said with a chuckle.
When asked if the transition was challenging, the actor said she was terrible at acting initially. She recalled going up to a filmmaker once and asking why he never cast her at the start of her career, “He told me, ‘ZQ, you just weren’t a very good actor [at the time].’”
She admitted she didn’t have the voice to play female leads. “My voice was so shrill when I would scream. I think I act better as the hero or heroine’s mother than as a heroine.”
Tiwana asked Qayoom what her criteria were when choosing what project to work on, if she just has the “hunger for roles where you’ll play Humayun Saeed’s mother or Faysal Quraishi’s mother”. She retorted asking whether the host had “any idea how challenging it is to play the mother of a former co-lead?“
The actor said she enjoys her job and is “grateful to be paid to do something I love”. To answer the question, she said she considers production houses and directors, “If both are good, the product will be fun.”
Qayoom said she has a hard time working with directors like Ahmed Bhatti, and writer Khalilur Rehman Qamar who want actors to memorise whole scripts word for word. She said she places greater importance on the meaning behind the lines instead of the actual words.
On future projects, the actor said she was focusing on writing a book, which Tiwana recalled discussing with her back when they worked together. Affan Waheed, who was also invited to the programme, said Qayoom was a great writer and he had read a chapter of the book, which he found “so well written”.