Zara Noor Abbas on body confidence and finding her action-hero side

Actor Zara Noor Abbas has opened up about filming Gear Up, an action segment of the upcoming anthology film Sheroes, revealing that she weighed 12kgs more when she shot the project than she does now.

In an interview with Arab News, she discussed how her weight initially made her conscious of what she wore on screen. But director Saqib Khan encouraged her to embrace her body, challenging her perception of what an action heroine should look like.

“When I shot for that film, I was 12kgs higher than what I am right now. And I did feel that there was a certain inhibition to my body. I was really reluctant about what to wear,” the actor said.

Zara recalled raising her concerns with Khan, who reassured her that her physique was exactly what he wanted for the character.

“I was like, ‘No, Saqib, you don’t understand. This is not going to look good on my body.’ He was like, ‘No, you don’t understand. You look at your body in a very negative way. From where I am seeing, I think you are fit for the role, and I want someone who looks like this and who has a build like this,’” she added.

The conversation, she said, also reinforced the importance of representing different body types when portraying powerful female characters in action films. “Not everyone can be a size zero and look a certain size. No, women have different bodies, and we are telling different stories from different ethnicities,” she said.

The other segments feature Kinza Hashmi in Artist and Ushna Shah in Punch.

For Zara, the role also offered an opportunity to explore a side of female characters she feels is often underrepresented on television. “In dramas, we are not able to show our physical strength. As characters, we do not show the emotional resilience, persistence and perseverance that women have. But I really wanted to project a role where I could look badass,” she said.

That experience appears to have left Zara keen to explore more physically demanding roles. “I think I’d like to take up roles around the spy verse and the police and the cool cop verse,” she said.

She is already preparing for another project, revealing that she is undergoing intensive training that includes early-morning workouts.

“As we speak, I am also training for a new role. I wake up at 7 in the morning. From 7 to 12, I train for that. Then I go to my work on a drama set. I am also doing MMA right now and learning street fighting. I am really liking this whole dimension of my new self,” she shared.

With Gear Up, Zara is moving into a genre that gives her room to explore physical strength and a more action-driven side of her performance.

Her experience filming the project has also prompted her to question the conventional image of what a female action hero is expected to look like — and, judging by her current training, it may not be the last time audiences see her in that space.