Mahira Khan recently spoke at Aga Khan University’s Special Lecture Series on Thursday, and she was all inspiration for the attendees. Amongst the selfies and fan drama, Khan talked about a lot of things surrounding her success, failure, dreams and strength to cope up with whatever’s happening around her.
Talking about her faith in life and how she has stood by it during the hardest times;
“Faith is a beautiful and important thing. And you know this more when you have lost it.
“When you are trapped in a dark place in life, faith helps you know that it will be okay,” she continued, sharing her struggles in college when she also held two jobs and had lost her living quarters. “Walking to the bus stand each day, I knew that one day there will be payback. That is having faith.
“And speaking of success brings us to failure. The truth is that we have all gone through failure. I have personally as well as professionally experienced failure.”
On Bol and Humsafar, the two pillars of her successful career, she said:
“I was advised by many people to not accept the role in Bol as it was a small one but my gut told me otherwise. I also decided to act in the serial Humsafar on my gut feeling.”
Her gut feeling led her to projects that definitely became one of the most popular cinematic masterpiece and drama serials of all time;
“Well, there may be plenty of science formulas but there is no formula for success. Each and every one of us is unique thus our paths are too. Let’s not forget failure. It is true that we have all gone through failure.”
Reminiscing the times when she did not get what she wanted to. even though the world get to know her with Bol and Raees, Mahira said:
“There are no repeats of your first film but somehow my name was missed as the Bol credits scrolled in front of me. Then for Raees, even though the teaser said ‘introducing Mahira Khan’, I felt like being punched in the stomach when there was no such credit in the film itself. Then when it was released, I was banned in India and the film was banned in Pakistan,” she said.
Joking around her situation of how she was left out from the credits of two most important films in her life, she laughingly added:
“It is a big thing to work in a foreign film. I pray I get my introducing credit when I work in an Iranian film.”
She further went on to say that she had her highs and lows, but her faith is what kept her on the right path. The Raees actress claimed that actors know how to paint a smile on their faces even when they don’t feel like. She closed her session with the high note saying that she always had a dream and she has now lived through it:
“I was dreaming of wearing a sari and dancing like Madhuri Dixit. I also used to dream of working with Shah Rukh Khan. I did nothing to make it happen. I only dreamed and believed in my dreams.”