Our depiction of women is one dimensional: Meesha Shafi

After making waves on TV, singer-actor gearing up for ‘The Jugni tour’ in US with Arif Lohar

LAHORE: Meesha Shafi has impressed audiences nationwide in the avatar of Wazir Begum in the Mughal period drama, Mor Mahal. She has managed to deliver the performance with a certain panache that seems to come naturally to her. Whether Shafi is out and about making bold fashion statements or at home being a mother to her two children, the actor-singer seems equally poised and confident. Talking to The Express Tribune, the Jugni singer discloses details about her latest projects and upcoming US tour.

As effortless as Shafi comes across on screen, only a few know that she took body language coaching and acting classes for a whole month before shooting for Mor Mahal. As part of Sarmad Khoosat’s creative vision, all actors on the show had to put in rehearsing hours. “Outside of the classes, I would reinforce everything I learnt there — I would check my hand gestures, pace and the words I had picked up,” she muses.

Known to be very particular about selecting projects, Shafi ensures she picks up roles that challenge her as an actor. “I don’t like doing repetitive roles — that’s the reason I don’t do too many local TV shows. I feel our depiction of women is a little one dimensional.” For some actors it is easy to repeat a certain character because they feel they get better at playing the particular role, Shafi likes to take up projects that allow her to discover her own range and produce good content.



Having acted in the Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundementalist, Bollywood film Bhaag Milka Bhaag and Pakistani production Waar, she admits, “I’ve learnt how things are meant to be done as opposed to how things are done [in Pakistan]. Besides Sarmad, no one really invests that much in the process even though it makes the end product stronger.”

Shafi also worked on Manto’s critically-acclaimed soundtrack with Jamal Rahman. “It was a labour of love — that sort of song or project doesn’t come by very often.” As far as her original music goes she shares, “I have a lot of songs but I hesitate to do something with them because the industry is not very encouraging as far as music is concerned. From the payback, feasibility, effort, pain and time that one takes to make a song here without infrastructure, funding and marketing — none of it is favourable.”

Meanwhile, she keeps performing live and has a US tour with Arif Lohar scheduled for this month. Titled ‘The Jugni tour’ after their popular duet, the two will be making stops in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Washington and Boston among other cities. Speaking about the band line-up, Shafi reveals, “We will have session players from different places including Farhan Ali, Sherry Khattak, two drummers, a percussionist and a keyboardist.”



However, the countless projects have not stopped Shafi from being a hands on mother. “Motherhood has made me feel more accomplished because there is no comparison to being a mother and yet carrying on with work. I’ve done some of my best work around and during both my pregnancies,” she adds. “I have had people drop hints about not having kids while on a career trajectory but I’ve always told them it’s possible.” Shafi’s mother, actor Saba Hameed, worked in the same industry while her children were growing up. “I saw my mother doing both first hand; so, the concept is not that fascinating for me but it does intrigue people,” she concludes.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2016.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.