I was 138 kgs, after which I went to 83 kgs: Usman Mukhtar opens up about eating disorder

The actor reflected on his professional and personal struggles in recent interview

Usman Mukhtar, who recently made waves with his role in the Mahira Khan and Kubra Khan-starrer Hum Kahan Ke Sachay Thay, as well as his award-winning short film and directorial debut Bench, sat down for an interview with Tony Navaid Rashid. The actor spoke about a variety of topics such as his aversion to “illogical” commercial films and his fans taking his and Naimal Khawar’s on-screen relationship a bit too seriously. Usman also opened up about his eating disorder, speaking about it candidly with the host.

The actor, who got his big break after struggling for over 12 years, starred alongside Naimal Khawar in the drama serial Anaa. Speaking about his struggles along the way, Usman revealed, “I never faced the casting couch. I am a very different kind of person. Commercial things don’t really appeal to me, because I feel commercial things are great up to a point, but nowadays, they are devoid of logic. There is no logic in commercial cinema. It is getting dumber by the day.”

He elaborated further, “I didn’t want to do those things, and I struggled a lot with it over the course of my career. I used to do theatre, but I didn’t go commercial because I couldn’t find good content. But, then, you realise that if you stay and work within your bubble, you won’t get the recognition that you want. So, then, after running away from it for a long time, I decided to do TV. [My TV debut in] Anaa gave me the recognition that I never got.”

After the interviewer questioned whether he worries about sustaining his popularity and avoiding the dreaded one-hit-wonder label, Usman reflected, “I have no plans. People have tried to scare me a lot with this, but my aim is to try and select good projects. Try to challenge myself.”

On being unable to find satisfying roles, he continued, “I feel like, even now with Sabaat, I’m still looking for a role that is different and challenging. I haven’t found that yet. I have started getting very sceptical about my roles, and I feel that’s all I can do.”

When asked whether, following his recent success, the actor was overwhelmed with offers to work in TV and film, Usman responded that this was not the case. He explained, “I haven’t gotten that many offers. Just a normal amount… I’m not even that selective in that I haven’t really picked any stellar roles so far. I don’t know. I haven’t been able to find the kind of roles that challenge me.”

Citing the kind of roles he’d like to pursue, the actor added, “Like Imran Abbas as Bhola or Bilal Abbas in Cheekh. Zahid in Ishq Zahe Naseeb. I really want to do more character-driven roles. I’ve only gotten one-dimensional ones so far.”

Following his success with his TV debut in Anaa, several fans of his and co-star Naimal Khawar’s characters took their on-screen relationship far too seriously. Explaining how he and Naimal, both of whom are now married, never saw each other in a romantic way, Usman shared, “Naimal and I never had that kind of a dynamic. We were always like siblings… people think we met on the set of Anaa, but we’ve known each other much longer than that. We never thought of things that way. I think it’s a compliment on our performance on screen and being able to portray that chemistry very well.”
However, there can definitely be too much of a good thing, with the couple’s on-screen chemistry leading to some awkward fan encounters and a slew of memes. Usman revealed, “Sometimes I would get angry, because people would come up, like this aunty, she came up to me and said, ‘Beta, are you okay?’ I said yes and she replied saying, ‘Izzah [referring to Naimal’s character] is getting married to Hamza [Ali Abbasi]’ and I told her I was very happy about it, but people think of the on-screen relationship as a reality.”

He added, “ When I went to Naimal’s wedding, it was up in the mountains, and we took a few pictures together. By the time I took the 15-minute drive back to Islamabad, there were about 108 memes made on that picture.”

The actor also opened up about his struggles with an eating disorder, saying, “One thing that no one knows about me is that I have an eating disorder… I’m in a different phase right now where I can’t eat as much. I’m on a very strict diet. Even if there’s biryani being made at home, I won’t have any.”

He added, “Sometimes I am on a very strict diet, but when I let it go I start eating more…. I was 138 kgs, after which I went to 83 kgs. I’m 89 kgs right now and I need to lose more weight.”

On how he feels the media industry can be improved, Usman shared, “I feel like we need more talent. We need better writers.  A lot of work needs to be done on sound. I feel like our sound is very weak. Scriptwriters are something we definitely need.  The biggest problem in our films is sound though. We need to step away from the storylines about women trapped in domestic settings in our dramas.”