No regard for mental health: Kubra says Pakistani people have trend of belittling, trolling people

Actor spoke about being her harshest critic and her aspirations for the drama industry

Actor Kubra Khan feels restrained by the entertainment industry and its lack of quality scripts and wishes to see more profound love stories and social commentary dramas like the Saba Qamar-starrer, Sar-e-Rah. On Express TV’s The Talk Talk Show, the 30-year-old actor spoke about being her own harshest critic, trolling, and the kind of scripts that resonate with her. She also detailed her aspirations for the Pakistani television industry.

When asked about her absence from the screen since her last appearance in Sang-e-Mah over a year ago, Kubra revealed, “I have done a drama but it hasn’t aired yet. You’ll have to wait a bit more.” About her reasons for being selective, she said, “The real truth is that I didn’t find a script that touched my heart yet. There was no character or story that I really wanted to do.” Her upcoming drama, Jannat Say Agay, directed by Haseeb Hasan and written by Umera Ahmed, also stars Gohar Rasheed, Ramsha Khan, and Talha Chahour.

Humble but anxious

When asked about which drama she enjoyed doing the most, Kubra said, “Alif and Sinf-e-Aahan.” However, the Na Maloom Afraad actor exclaimed, “I’m actually one of the people who do not like their own work. I don’t watch my dramas usually but nowadays, I try to watch my work again because I want to see if I was able to portray the emotion that I originally felt in the script.”

She added, “If you ask me, I don't like any of my work,” she laughed. “But I have to be my harshest critic. If I think that I have delivered my best performances then I would never learn. I want to keep learning.” 
 
 Talking about her “worst performances” in her own eye, she named Alif Allah Aur Insan and Sang-e-Mah. “I hated Alif Allah Aur Insan. I hated my character. I didn’t perform well in Sang-e-Mah either. I think I could have done so much better.”
 
 The host also opined that her character Shehrezade was written poorly too. Defending that, she added, “I genuinely feel we had a lot of reasons for Shehrezade to be the way she was. But even so, as an actor, it's my job to make it better. I couldn’t see more than two scenes of Sang-e-Mah. Perhaps it was also the first character of mine that didn’t get any attention from my fans or critics. There was no reaction. Nothing was on social media.”
 
 Apart from that, she revealed that she was also sceptical about her role in Sinf-e-Aahan. “I would tell Nadeem that my character has no arc. I did my best though, but I think since, I’m scared and I don't think I do enough, I overcompensate for it, and maybe that shows on screen. People see it, and they like me for it,” she opined.

Upon what she usually watches for leisure and would want to see on Pakistani screens, too, she had two things to say. The first, she said, are dramas on social taboos in ou society. “Social issues are very important, but while the script is important, what matters is how it is implemented. I loved Saba’s Sar-e-Rah. She is the narrator, but she’s also just a carrier of other stories. The characters are well-written. Not everything should be dark. You can talk about such issues, enlighten people and prepare them instead of warning them all the time,” she said.

On the other hand, Kubra is a romantic through and through. Whether it's a love-filled romance or a cute and captivating tale, she believes that a dose of love adds allure and connects audiences to the characters' journeys.

“The other kind are love stories. I love, love stories. I think we need to make more love stories; intense one, happy ones, even star-crossed lovers because there’s nothing without love. If I have a bad day, and I come home from a 12–13-hour shift and I see the same kind of scripts on TV, I would change the channel but if there's a cute, romantic thing on, I’d watch it.”

Moving on, Kubra spoke about which actors have inspired her to improve her craft. “My favourite actors are Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, and Tom Hanks. They know how to be minimal and yet say the most intense things.
 
 ‘Actors are easy targets’
 
 Earlier this year, Kubra took legal action against Adil Raja for maligning her name. She also went to FIA and urged them to remove all offensive content against her online. Speaking about the incident and why she was so vocal about it, Kubra exclaimed, “If I don’t stand up for myself, then I shouldn’t be allowed to stand up for other people. This happens all the time. Every year, they choose an actor, target someone, and insult them, and this time, I said, ‘No. Not anymore.’ and I came out victorious at the end of it.”
 
“Actors are easy targets because they are so busy with their work that they’re mostly unaware of the politics in the country. Just because we are in the media, people think our lives are their lives. They can talk about my craft, but not about my personal life and my character. If I did not give a shut-up call at that time, then it would’ve kept happening,” she exclaimed.
 
 Kubra also added how there’s a trend in our society where users first troll the victim, then when they take an action and something terrible happens, they make placards and write supportive messages and the cycle continues. “They will keep making fun and insult people only to be sorry later. It’s funny how they have no regard for someone’s mental health.”
 
 The Sang-e-Mah actor revealed that it was only after a severe panic attack and a trip to the hospital that she realised she has to take legal action for this to stop for once and all. “People always ask me why I took action if i wasn’t involved and my name wasn’t mentioned. I don’t care if my name wasn’t mentioned; my picture was there. There were horrible things alleged.”
 
 “Till date, whenever I post a picture, there’s always someone who repeats that incident horrifically in the comments. I think they don’t have a life,” she concluded.