Celebrities upped the glamour quotient at star-studded Hum Awards last week, but the night will always be remembered for many other reasons. Yasir Hussain’s child molestation joke, when Ahsan Khan came on stage to accept the Best Actor Award for Udaari, was frowned upon by his contemporaries and journalists alike.
In the face of a huge error on Hussain’s part, Khan remained surprisingly disengaged from responding to the comment on the occasion. However, speaking to The Express Tribune, the actor finally broke his silence on the issue which took social media by storm last week.
“I urge people to channel their emotions towards addressing the problem of child abuse in Pakistan. The real tragedy is not a few flippant jokes; it is the sad fact that every day, more than 11 children in Pakistan report sexual abuse. The number of reports made is unacceptably high but, sadly, the actual number of children abused each day is much higher,” said Khan. “We must come together and fight for the rights of abused children not just in Pakistan but also all over the world.”
According to Khan, it is high time we stop attacking individuals such as Hussain for cracking inappropriate jokes and start taking meaningful steps towards reducing and eventually eliminating child abuse. “It takes a lot of courage to address problems that have, heretofore, been conveniently swept under the rug. I salute Hum TV for having had the courage to bring the subject of child abuse to mainstream television and each and every member of the cast and crew of Udaari for being part of a truly monumental project that was Pakistani media’s first significant step towards addressing the evil of child abuse,” he added.
Stating that he is fortunate to have been a part of the fantastic team of Udaari, Khan hopes directors will churn out more projects in the future that will help make child abuse a thing of the past. The actor, who has already received three awards for his role in Udaari disclosed details about his journey through Udaari, which was arguably one of the most challenging roles of his career.
“Performing such intense scenes was the most difficult part, I had always known and felt about child abuse facts, but only after reading the script and getting into the character I realized how disturbing the whole process was. There were times when I had sleepless nights just thinking about the abused children,” he stated. “In the beginning I didn't realise the agony and pain until I actually met the victims and abused children whom gave me the shivers, thinking it would be nightmare if my own kids ever go through this turmoil”.
Khan mentioned that victims would come and share their most personal, deepest and darkest stories with him and it took him a while to believe that those were real tragedies. “I could feel the agony and vengeance then,” he said. “People would stop me in markets and ask ‘Aap ney kyun itna gandaaa role kya, ayenda mat karna’ and the worst would be
‘Nafrat hogai hai aap say, dil karta hai aap ko maaaren’. I would ask myself whether I had made a mistake in my career by choosing this character but as they say intentions matter and my intention was that even if I could change one life, the purpose would be served and I will be able to live in contentment and satisfaction.”
While Khan may have faced some awkwardness from his fellow artists, his struggle to create awareness against child abuse continues. “Some of my co-actors called me child abuser, not realising how it could affect my personality. But, I wanted to send the message across, and today when I have won three awards in a row, I feel proud as this was not about me. It was about the taboo which we have to break and spread child abuse awareness,” he said.
Khan is currently busy filming two films – Chupan Chupai and Rehbraa – both of which are slated to release later this year.
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