It’s never a bad time to interview Ushna Shah. There is always so much to discuss, so many new projects to analyse, so many new twists to her life to ask her about.

In her 10-odd-years-long acting career, Ushna’s been on a constant rollercoaster ride, bouncing from one major project to the other, frequently setting social media ablaze with her strong opinions, making headlines that she confesses have often dealt harrowing blows to her mental health and, yet, standing her ground and refusing to resort to wishy-washy ubiquitous diplomacy. There’s never a dull moment in Ushna’s life.

And it’s never a dull interview.

She’s looking better than ever on the evening that we meet. Her hair falls in perfectly blow-dried waves and she tells me that she’s wearing layers upon layers of make-up, in preparation for the long spate of interviews that she’ll be going through today.

Actor Ushna Shah is usually in the thick of things, fiercely enthusiastic about her work, strongly opinionated about society and willing to go against the tide. How has her recent marriage and her activism against the ongoing genocide in Palestine changed her view of the world?

We are meeting a day before the premiere of her movie Chikkar — the movie has released since then and has been received well by critics.

“Everyone, including you, used to ask me when my movie would release. I finally have an answer now!” she bends forward and laughs, her dimples flashing prettily. Ushna, who I have known to get nervous over interviews, seems to be quite ready for this one. It must be my lucky day.

But I don’t want to test my luck at this point. We start our conversation with the easiest, most apt topic at hand: her movie. “There are so many of my dramas that I am proud of and, now, I will have this movie that I will look back upon and be proud of too,” she tells me.

“Chikkar is not a huge budget film. It isn’t a typically commercial film. But it has a very strong story. It’s a crime thriller, a family entertainer, it has dark humour and a bit of romance, although the movie really isn’t about the romance. There’s social commentary on corruption and on the clashes between different cultures existing in Pakistan and it all comes together as chikkar [mud]!”

Can she tell, while working on a project — film or TV — whether it will work well or not?

“You get an idea, somewhat. My scenes are mostly with Usman Mukhtar and I don’t think anyone else could have played the character better. The movie also has an amazing ensemble cast — from Saleem Mairaj to Ali Sheikh, Adnan Shah Tipu, Faryal Mehmood, Nausheen Shah and some amazing new actors from the Ajoka Theatre group.”

She continues, “This is the cinematic directorial debut of Zaheeruddin Ahmed. He isn’t usually in the spotlight, but people in the industry know him very well, as someone who directs and writes ads that focus on realities.

“In the movie, too, he was very insistent that everything looked realistic. He didn’t let me wear any make-up except in one scene, and I had to fight with him to let me look good at least once in the movie!” She laughs.

“TV’s coming out of my ears!”

She didn’t mind that, in the spirit of realism, her character — in sharp contrast to her recent TV avatars — has a completely unglamorous look?

“No. Even when working in dramas, there have been times when I have skipped out on the glamour altogether and shown my dark circles on camera — I am sure I scared off little children!” She laughs. “When I take an early morning flight and am not wearing make-up, people think that I am terminally ill.”

Of course not, I tell her. She grins. “But yes, in dramas, we generally sleep with perfect curls and wake up with them. We also wear embroidered clothes and have contact lenses on when we wake up.

“And there are times when I have had discussions with directors about making my appearance more realistic but, you know what, it’s okay! If I am playing a girl that the hero is so much in love with that he would do anything to be with me, maybe curls simply spring out from my roots. Maybe I just always have Hollywood waves. It’s alright, deal with it!”

How, in her experience, has working in a film been different from shooting a drama?

“I’ve worked in so much TV — I have TV coming out of my ears!” she exclaims. “Films are definitely more fast-paced, so that’s fun. In films, scenes may span a few minutes while, in dramas, every emotion, every scene has to be stretched out. Films are definitely more realistic because, in real life also, we don’t stretch a single emotion for 10 days!”

TV drama storylines also very frequently revolve around domestic abuse, I observe. “Yes, and I am just done with it! I have been part of certain scripts that I now regret, where I have been abused so much. I have been choked by a guy playing my father, kicked by someone playing my husband, I’ve been slapped countless times. It’s all so ridiculous and I have had enough of it.”

At this point in her career, is she able to take a stand against scenes that she doesn’t agree with, such as those showing abuse?

“Yes, and I am happy to say that a lot of my male co-stars agree with me,” says Ushna. “I am currently shooting a drama in which, in a certain scene, a male actor is supposed to slap his sister and all of us, including the director, agreed that we would not show the slap.

“We’re all evolving as people and as an industry and thinking along the same trajectory. Forget beating up the wife, why should it be alright for a man to raise his hands even on his sister? You don’t raise your hands on people. This abuse has been glorified and normalised in our dramas for far too long and we’re all sick of it.”

She smirks. “What I am okay with is guys fighting over a girl. I am a princess, fight for my honour!”

But that sort of violence doesn’t haul in the kind of viewership ratings that domestic abuse in dramas manages to generate, I point out wryly.

“Yes, and then can you entirely blame the producers and the directors?” she asks. “Ratings don’t lie and producers ultimately want to earn money. So, they end up focusing more on stories that they know are more popular with the audience.”

She cites an example. “For instance, in our dramas, we constantly emphasise on how a marriage should not break, no matter what, and how it is up to the woman to be able to achieve this. I am married myself. I know that efforts should be made to maintain the marriage. I agree that, a lot of times, the woman ends up making more sacrifices.

“And, yes, in our religion, divorce is an act least liked by God, but it is [also] a right given to women for a reason. How can our dramas depict a woman going through all sorts of abuse and her life getting ruined because of the marriage and, then, for her to ultimately forgive and forget her in-laws at the drop of a dime?”

Ushna continues: “When you stigmatise divorce to such an extent in popular dramas, the sentiment eventually trickles down to society, and the notion is strengthened that a divorced woman is bad. And I have a problem with this, especially since I am from a divorced home myself.

“My mother was a single parent and she worked three jobs at a time in order to raise her children. She is the most self-sacrificing woman that I know of, but because she is divorced, does that make her a bad person? If one day I become a producer, I’d like to change this narrative.

“I’ve been married for nearly a year now and I hope that I stay married till my dying day but, if tomorrow, God forbid, my marriage doesn’t work out, will I be incomplete? I will still be Ushna, a complete person all on my own. A marriage consists of two whole people coming together to form a unit. A woman is not incomplete because she is single.”

Are more innovative scripts coming her way at this juncture in her life? She smiles, vociferously shaking her head ‘no’ while telling me, “Yes, sure!” She adds, “I am working in some interesting dramas right now, but dramas with really innovative stories are barely being made.”

Building her own “table”

So what sort of stories does she want to tell?

“I want to tell stories about us,” she tells me. “I am Pakistani-Canadian but, regardless of the fact that I grew up in Canada — and that I can’t help but speak in an accent that I get trolled about! — I am Pakistani, Muslim, brown-skinned. I want to work on stories that celebrate our culture, our values.

“For years we have seen the Western narrative, where we have been portrayed as terrorists. And we’ve often been desperate for a seat at ‘their’ table — a table or platform consisting of global power players, where minorities like us don’t usually get recognised. But why not build our own table?

“I am part of a project that is being filmed in Turkey, based on the life of Selahaddin Eyyubi, a great Muslim conqueror and warrior. I was talking to the producer and he told me that the reason he invested in this series was that the last major project based on [Muslim history] was the movie The Message, and that was all the way back in the ’70s. From then till now, nothing else has been made on a grand scale based on our stories. We need to kill this worldwide narrative of us being terrorists.”

Has she always been so passionate about working on stories that are representative of Muslim culture and history?

“Never as much as I am now,” she confesses. “There is no word to describe what is happening in Gaza right now. It’s the most documented genocide in the history of the world and seeing it, and the way so many around the world are endorsing this mass murder, has made me feel more Muslim, more Pakistani than ever before.

“So, while the oppressor may have wanted to undermine the power of Islam, this genocide has managed to bring many people, including myself, closer to their religion. I am proud of being a Muslim and, if I were born again, I would want to be born a Muslim again.”

She continues, “I am now reading the Quran in English because I want to understand it. And I recently went on the Umrah pilgrimage with my husband, because someone suggested to me that I should touch the Ka’aba and ask God why all this was happening. I thought to myself that I had been praying and trying to raise as much awareness as I could on social media. Perhaps I would now ask God. I am still asking.”

Changing dreams

Ushna is among the very few Pakistani entertainment celebrities to have constantly spoken about the genocide in Gaza, utilising Twitter and Instagram constantly in an effort to urge people to keep raising their voices against Israel.

It is no secret that popular social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have been ‘shadow-banning’ pages that are posting pro-Palestinian content, thereby decreasing their general reach, following and growth.

Considering that artists like herself depend largely on social media in order to earn through brand endorsements, did she not fear that her activism would impact her professionally?

“Of course, I knew what I was getting into. I have been heavily shadow-banned but, aside from that, I also knew that I would lose out on multinational ads.

I have been very lucky so far in my career, featuring very frequently in ads. When an artist’s project-to-ad ratio consists of more ads, it is testament to his or her success. A single day’s shoot for an ad tends to pay as much as a six-months’ long drama spell. Also, Netflix is now working with Pakistan, there have been collaborations with Marvel, there are international film festivals taking place and our actors are going there. I knew that there was a chance that I would lose out on all this revenue and work, should I be vocal in my support of Palestine.

“There’s a reason why so many Pakistani celebrities may reshare content related to the genocide but are not talking about the oppressor directly and are not creating content for raising awareness. And that’s fine. Everyone does what they can do and everyone’s heartstrings get triggered by different things. Speaking out for Gaza is just the decision that I have made for myself.”

She observes: “My idea of success has changed, my dreams have changed. I see the world for what it is and I don’t want to be aligned with a brand which is on the wrong side of history. I still want to do amazing work and entertain the world. I would love to one day work in Hollywood, although they are very unlikely to take me on now. But my focus is on creating projects for our people, to show our history,” she reasserts.

“We could be making movies based on our caliphs – we can’t show their faces but we could depict the messages that they gave.”

I am curious: would she have still been so vocal had she been earning alone, without her husband to provide financial support? She is resolute: “I would have spoken for Palestine no matter what. It’s not like my husband is a billionaire that I could leave these avenues for revenue so easily. We both work very hard. But speaking out was essential for me.

“I grew up in a household where activism was a norm. As a child, I remember my mother crying when Yasir Arafat’s compound was about to get bulldozed. I was in Canada post 9/11 observing the fake Western propaganda. I am my mother’s daughter. I couldn’t have not spoken out.”

Ushna continues: “And while it is everyone’s personal choice to address a cause on social media, I have called out stars and brands that have made fun of what is happening in Gaza. I have certainly called out celebrities whose entire careers have been based on their human rights activism, who have won peace prizes but have chosen to stay quiet about a mass genocide!”

We turn to the topic of her recent umrah. She won the hearts of many Pakistanis when she responded to a comment on Instagram, stating that she had enjoyed wearing the hijab. Ushna laughs.

“This was just a reply to someone who had commented under my umrah picture on Instagram and somehow it got picked up. Yes, I did enjoy wearing the hijab. For one, modest clothing is very pretty. Just your face is visible and you don’t have to bother with hair or being a certain weight. Also, with what is happening in Palestine, I now feel a need to represent my religion and hijab is a way of doing so.

“Having said this, I was not implying that tomorrow I would become a hijabi or I would never wear sleeveless again. These are all personal choices.

“But so much that our audience believes in is just smoke and mirrors. If today I am wearing a hijab or talking about Palestine, I am a favourite. If tomorrow, they see me dancing in a lehnga choli at my own wedding in a video that was leaked, they will curse at me.

“A picture of me wearing a full-sleeved outfit at a show in Ramazan will deem me as good and, when I wear sleeveless, I’ll be bad. I know plenty of people who wear the hijab but are extremely mean and vice versa. This visualising of people as black and white — something that is also purported in our dramas — is just so unhealthy.”

Has she stopped bothering with what people say? “Sometimes,” she shrugs, “and sometimes I get affected.”

Ushna Shah may not be a stranger to negativity but it’s brought her down countless times. She tells me that she has always managed to emerge stronger — still enthusiastic about her work, still strongly opinionated, still willing to go against the tide should she feel that it is the right thing to do.

Like I said, it’s never a dull interview with her. Ushna Shah isn’t a dull woman. It’s what sets her apart.

Published in Dawn, ICON, January 28th, 2024