'It's just sad', says Mahira Khan on ban on Pakistani artists in India
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Mahira Khan will next be seen in a short story that will stream on Zee5
Pakistani actress Mahira Khan recently spoke about the ban on Pakistani artistes in the Indian film industry. Famous in the Hindi-speaking belt in India for her Bollywood film ‘Raees’ with Shah Rukh Khan, Mahira said, “I guess, having experienced it firsthand, it’s just sad. When I think about it… I mean, we have all moved on. That’s what we do, if we don’t have this, we do something else. That’s what happens. But I feel like a great opportunity for the entire subcontinent to come together and collaborate was lost. I think it might happen again. Who knows?”
Now starring in one of the short stories in an upcoming Zee5 series, she said, “A lot of the other series were offered to me and at that time… I don’t know if anybody will understand when I say this, I was scared. I was genuinely just scared. It wasn’t about what people say, I was just like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go there.’ And there was some content which was amazing, and I didn’t want to miss out on it.”
“But I was scared and I have no shame in admitting it. Now I am a bit more like, ‘No, come on yaar, you can’t let something that happened, which was political, affect your choices.’ So I don’t think I will do that anymore and I hope that we collaborate, even if it's on digital or in any way,” she added.
After the Uri attack in 2016, Pakistani artistes were banned from working in Bollywood. The All Indian Cine Workers Association announced a total ban on Pakistani artistes after the Pulwama terror attack in 2019.