Mahira Khan talks about attending the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival and how honoured she feels to represent Pakistan on such a prestigious platform.
Karachi: News of Mahira Khan attending the 71st Cannes Film Festival has been doing the rounds since it was announced in October last year, but details of her participation were just recently made public. A press conference was held in Karachi, in which the star spoke about attending the event and what she looks forward to.
“Everyone’s been asking me that it must be so exciting for you, but to be honest I feel like I am a player of the Pakistani cricket team who is playing all alone,” stated Mahira, who is the Official Spokesperson for L’Oréal Paris Hair-Care in Pakistan. “I am very nervous. But at the same time I am really honoured as this is a proud moment for Pakistan and it will hopefully open a lot more doors for us.”
The L’Oréal team that was present at the occasion revealed that Mahira will be attending the festival for three days, during which she will have an extremely busy schedule, which includes meeting fashion designers and hair stylist Stephane Lancien, as well as giving interviews to the BBC TV (UK), ISHQ (Germany) and the Associated Press TV (UK). Moreover, the actor will feature in ‘The Worth It Show’ alongside other global spokeswomen, who will unveil their stories, triumphs and obstacles on the way to feeling worth it. Of course she will also be joining Hollywood and Bollywood A-listers at the event.
A basic introduction was followed by a question and answer session, which was dominated by the one question on everyone’s mind: what would the superstar be wearing to the Cannes red carpet? We don’t think anyone expected a concrete answer because why would she give her look (or looks) away and sure enough, Mahira gave a vague response. She did confirm that she would be sporting at least one Pakistani look though.
“Well, I have a whole day and looks will change but we still haven’t decided what I will be wearing and hence it is making me more nervous,” she said.When asked about which movies she is looking forward to watching at the Cannes Film festival, the actor said that she didn’t know if she would get the time to watch any movie.
“If I get the chance I would love to see Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows that stars Penelope Cruz. Other than that I really want to watch Nandita Das’ Manto.” She added, “Saadat Ali Manto is our writer and having worked in the Pakistani version of the movie with Sarmad Khoosat, I want to see how they have treated the biographical account of the writer’s life as the timelines are different. So I am really looking forward to these two movies.”
The actor has several diverse projects to her credit, out of which she shared that her play Humsafar was the closest to her heart; it was her film Bin Roye that actually made her open as an actor, she added.
As far as the pressure of saying the right things at the festival is concerned, Mahira stated, “I do not prepare myself, sometimes I just say things and at times I do regret them later on, but I believe in answering honestly.”
Regarding the Cannes Film Festival promoting sexual harassment hotline, Mahira told Instep on the sidelines of the event, “Whether it is a festival or any of the award shows that have been happening across the world, they have taken this up very seriously and Me Too was given huge push forward and was also given a global understanding of it through Hollywood. It just doesn’t happen in Hollywood and it is terrible how pervasive it is generally. But now more people are talking about it and conversation will bring about a change. I believe it is a good step that Cannes has come up with the sexual harassment hotline. ”
Moreover, Mahira revealed that she is really excited to meet Cate Blanchett, who is President of the Jury of Cannes this year and Jane Fonda amongst others.
Mahira female star from Pakistan who is off to represent Pakistan in an official capacity. In 2008 veteran actor Adnan Siddiqui went to Cannes with A Mighty Heart and it wasn’t a Pakistani project although he did Pakistan very proud. Similarly, Armeena Rana Khan also attended Cannes in 2013 but not many people knew about it back then. This time things are different and they are big. Mahira has been chosen to represent L'Oreal at the global platform, which goes to show the star power that Mahira has and the immense responsibility she carries with her for it.
