You need not have a particularly vivid imagination to picture the pressures faced by a teenaged actor in a world of unfiltered social media piggybacked to a ruthless comments section. If, however, you lack even the unvivid imagination required to come to this realisation on your own, 16-year-old actor Aina Asif is here to confirm that the throbbing pressure is indeed real - albeit backed with support, passion, and an ounce of common sense, it is entirely survivable.
Taking pains to illustrate the unique experience of a Gen Z adolescent flourishing in the public eye, the young Parwarish star could not stress enough in a BBC Urdu interview that viewers still struggle to grasp her real age. “No matter how I dress, no matter how I act, people know I’m 16!” she began. “Everyone knows this, and yet they say, ‘But you don’t look like a child!’ But whatever I look like, I still have the mind of a 16-year-old!”
Becoming Maya
Aina’s acting career began at the tender age of 14 when she played a teenaged mother in Mayi Ri, although her current claim to fame is playing the head-over-heels-in-love Maya in Parwarish. Fans will recall Maya convincing her (deeply concerned) mother that her beau of choice, Wali, is in his ‘struggling phase’ and will soon be rolling in riches after he embarks on his imminent career in music.
“Maya is close to her mother, and has the space to vent and share her feelings - something she cannot do with her father,” noted Aina.
Whatever else the script puts Maya through (“Maya is forced into marriage, and I cannot even imagine myself in a situation like that!”) sharing a bond with a parent is nothing new to the girl who brings her to life. As someone who has grown up in a loving, supportive family. environment, the closeness Maya shares with her mother is one that, to Aina, felt like home.
“I found it so relatable to play Maya, because I, too, can tell my mother anything,” explained Aina. “I feel like Maya has a canvas on which she can express her emotions, which is very much needed for a growing child.”
Relatable roles
Not all of her roles, of course, have been as easy to relate to for the emerging young actor. If Aina found it difficult to stomach playing a young girl forced into marriage, inhabiting the skin of a teenage mother, Aini, in Mayi Ri was one she found even more alien.
“When I was filming Mayi Ri, I was still learning. I was 15 - no, 14!” recalled Aina. “My character had a daughter, so when I would pick her - because of course, there was a real kid on set! - she would cry every time. Then I would turn to the camera, because I was so flustered! I was like ‘I’m a kid too, How am I supposed to handle this?’”
So overwhelmed was Aina that she would seek solace from director Meesam Naqvi (who has also directed Parwarish) and plead, “Should I just give her my phone for two minutes?” Two years down the line, Aina has not forgotten her director’s next words.
“He would say, ‘No, Aina, if you are so frustrated, remember that you will go home at 10PM. You will not have to put her to bed or anything. But a real mother your age (because Aini was my age), she will feel the same things. I want you to feel things, because I want these things to come out.”
The realisation that other girls endure in real life what she was struggling to portray on screen proved to be a humbling lesson for Aina.
“It really hit me that me, Aina, with the family that I come from, it’s very different from the characters that I play,” pointed out the star. “I mean, I cannot even imagine that my mother or father would come and tell me - and this age, especially - that they have found a rishta for me. So to understand that hurt, that pain, was a little difficult for me, but once it hit me, it hit me hard.”
The impact of Aini’s story, and what it represents, is not lost on Aina. “Even today when I think of Aini, I get teary-eyed,” she confessed. “Because what happened to her was so unfair.”
Finding fame at 14
Besides having the opportunity to peek into how the other half lives, as it were, Aina is well aware of the cost of having a very public career at her age. If she had her own say, she would reduce working hours for actors, but for now, she has set her own boundaries (“I don’t wear revealing clothes and I don’t like intimate scenes”). Through it all, she still acutely feels the pressure of finding fame at 14.
“You need to enforce a specific track or mindset on yourself,” she insisted. “I need to make sure that I am not affected by some things. As for criticism, - there are some parts that I need to understand, but these are the people who will help you get where you need to go. You need to know who you should listen to and who you can ignore.”
Social media, of course, is a different ballgame. Again, Aina has been forced to learn to block out hurtful comments - mainly about her looks - and has trained herself to firmly look the other way.
“It used to affect me so much - to the point where if I read something negative about me, it would ruin my whole night,” she admitted. “I would start to cry. Now - I am still affected, I am not totally immune, but I try to not think about them so much.”
Aina does, however, have some choiceful words for those who insist on commenting on her looks or comparing her unkindly to cartoon characters online - something she assures viewers has happened.
“I don’t think anyone should comment on the way anyone looks. If you don’t like someone, don’t watch them!” she said. “I remember one time I saw this post where someone was comparing me to a cartoon character [...] I didn’t realise until later that they meant it as an insult!”
The actor then did the very thing she should have avoided: she dived into the comments section. “Everyone was making fun of me! It affected me - but then I felt sad that people don’t see the craft. My career is about acting. They don’t consider that I’m a child. These things obviously hurt!”
Aina’s eye-opening foray into the world of social media has led to a determination that there are parts of herself she will never reveal to fans and followers. “There are certain parts of my life that are just mine that no one has been able to comment on,” she insisted. “If people start criticising that too, I would lose myself.”
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