Armeena Rana Khan: A story of standing tall and success

ACTRESS ARMEENA RANA KHAN ON CHOOSING PRINCIPLES OVER HER CAREER, DOING GOOD WORK AND POST LOCKDOWN PRIORITIES

by ASJAD NAZIR

SHE may be originally from Canada, but Armeena Rana Khan has been residing in the UK long enough to be hailed as a great British success story.

The talented actress has not only made a name for herself on film and television with a series of winning performances, but also become a strong symbol of girl power.

The fearless beauty has also taken on trolls, challenged the establishment and publicly called out wrongdoing. After slowing down from her first love of acting to get married and pursue her philanthropic work, she recently made a return with new HUM TV romantic drama serial Mohabbatein Chahatein.

Eastern Eye caught up with Armeena Rana Khan to speak about acting, how lockdown has affected her, that public Priyanka Chopra battle and the importance of taking down trolls.

You got caught up in the Covid-19 chaos when lockdown began. Tell us about that?

I had just landed in Pakistan to commence shooting for a project that would mark my return after a three-year hiatus. The country was focused on the cricket super league (PSL) with posters and marketing everywhere. But in the background, there was news about a new flu-like virus akin to avian flu or SARS that had originated from a city called Wuhan in China. I saw memes on social media treating the whole thing as a joke. During the first morning at my hotel in Karachi, where some cricket teams were based, I noticed foreign players waiting for minibuses to take them to the airport.

What happened next?

The tournament was still ongoing, but the number of minibuses increased as hotel guests decreased, and my start date onset was postponed daily. By the time we realised this was serious, my management booked my husband, Fesl Khan, and me on the next flight to the UK. We took off from Karachi for a connecting flight in Lahore. After we landed in Lahore, flights began to get cancelled. Soon after, the airspace was shut down for what was supposed to be a few days. I ended up being stuck there for over two months.

How did being stuck away from home for so long make you feel?

The sense of powerlessness and lack of control was strange for someone like me. I watched the news back home in the UK, as hand wash, pasta and toilet paper became scarce, and supermarket shelves emptied. It was like a real-life post-apocalypse movie. The script was familiar, but I was an extra. We spent our time setting up a charity food drive with LoveKashmir to feed daily wage workers in Kashmir and parts of Lahore. It returned a sense of normalcy back into my life.

Has your approach and priorities changed post lockdown?

There was a world I knew before coronavirus, a hamster wheel of addiction. The influencers, corporations, governments and dare I say, celebrities were the dealers of preference in that world. I see they are all petrified now. You can see them working overtime to peddle their workouts, economic recovery plans and latest makeup tricks. But the secret is out. I realised I don’t need 99 black dresses, the ticket for Saturday’s game and another nude lipstick no one will see under my facemask. I have discovered my family and friends, hidden paths in the woods and mountains, my kitchen and dining table. Above all, I am aware of my neighbours around me, and many are in pain.

It seems like lockdown has really impacted you…

Why is a footballer fighting to feed hungry school kids? Why are my black brothers and sisters marching in a pandemic, just so the law treats them fairly? Why are refugees drowning in the seas to reach a better life? We all experienced what lockdown was like; the isolation, fear and uncertainty. Do we really want to return to a world of indifference and apathy? I want a new way of doing things in a post Covid world. So, I will be looking to reorient my time and finances towards doing my bit to ensure we make the right choices for such a future.

Is it fair to say, speaking up for and supporting social causes play an equal part in your thinking today?

As humans, when we achieve success, we have a tendency to think it’s because we are great and talented. But in reality, a lot of it is down to the people and environment around us, the opportunities we are presented with and just plain luck sometimes. Now, I believe if my bread is bigger than yours then I should share it or if I have caught the elevator to the top, I should send it back down for someone else. Because of this, I use my platform to try to amplify those without a voice and for me, this especially means speaking up on issues like gender equality, animal rights and child abuse.

You are fearless, where does that quality come from?

It’s inaccurate to say I am fearless. I have as many fears as the next woman. In fact, I had more than most in my past and they stopped me from speaking up or doing things I wanted to. But then I learnt fear is about risk and self-awareness. I now try to assess risk in a mature manner and manage the factors in line with my own attitude, whether this is in my professional endeavours or personal life. If people can learn to systemise their propensity to risk, they will find fear can be managed and utilised to work in their favour.

You take on social media trolls like a boss. Doesn’t that get emotionally draining for you?

Ah, the trolls. Who are these people? What families breed such beings? I am a result of a very polite upbringing, so it was shocking initially. This is one of the downsides of the internet. In the past, if you wanted to be in the same room as a professor of epidemiology you had to put in effort to, perhaps, get on a course they may be teaching and hear them speak. But now, Hank after chopping wood all day, can sit down in the evening on his phone, hotdog in one hand, and find the said professor on social media. Having done so, is he going to ask questions? Hell no! He will expound his theory of how aliens are behind the virus, in the belief his opinion carries intellectual equivalence. It does not.

In the same way, actresses like you get judgemental trolls and you shut them down quickly…

There is an important reason why I try to shut these trolls down. Social media should be a safe space for young people, especially, for little girls to be inspired, to learn and connect with role models. Trolls disrupt this function. They seek to deny others space by poisoning platforms. Why should a misogynistic scumbag with mummy issues shut down a little girl from accessing freely available avenues? Social media companies are failing in their duty to modulate this incessant troll activity on their platforms.

You had also called out Priyanka Chopra on social media in 2019. How do you look back on that incident?

So, let me take you back to that time. Extremists on both sides were calling for war. Two nuclear-armed armies were on the border and a minor miscalculation away from disaster. In such an atmosphere, artists, opinion leaders and decent people everywhere have to show their moral timbre and come together in a partnership of tolerance and common sense that de-escalates the situation and secures peace. The last thing you want is for people with a platform to feed belligerence (like she did). I don’t have anything against Priyanka personally. Indeed, I acknowledge the hard work and her career achievements. But she was supposed to be a UNICEF ambassador and had seen what war does to little children first-hand in Syrian refugee camps.

You challenged UNICEF for having her as an ambassador after her remarks…

Her stance exposed her ersatz charity work as nothing, but cheap clout? It is a shame that she has sullied her legacy and along with it, UNICEF’s reputation. Many around the globe now associate UNICEF as enablers in the oppression of the Kashmiri people. You can’t recover from such damage overnight.

Your industry is very clique-like; do you never think calling out big names may harm your career?

Speaking up in any field carries with it an inherent risk. Just look at Colin Kaepernick. But as the saying goes, “those who stand for nothing, fall for anything”. There are principles far bigger than anyone’s career or person. In life, we face a moment where the person we were is telling us to remain quiet and the person we want to become urges us to speak up. Who do you want to be? One day, my grandkids may see my work. I need them to understand who I was, who my fans and friends were and which side of history we stood on.

What projects do you have on the way?

I have just finished filming a short film in Turkey and also my major new drama serial in Pakistan, Mohabbatein Chahatein is now airing on Hum TV. I am looking forward to more challenging roles and producing content that is relevant and interesting for my fans.

Why do you love being an actor?

Acting is an amazing career. Imagine getting to create alternative realities, exploring being different versions of yourself or stepping inside someone else’s life. The research, introspection and psychological growth opportunities that go with this process are worth it alone. Additionally, I get to work with some of the smartest people in the world. I learn so much from each project. If you don’t know what I mean, then just try sitting down for a couple of hours with an actor.

Instagram: @armeenakhanofficial