EXCLUSIVE: One-On-One With Atiqa Odho

Atiqa Odho is no ordinary; she is beautiful, elegant and talented. This year marks her 25th year in the Pakistani film industry and even then, one can never get bored of her smile and of course stellar performance when she appears on screen. She has a cosmetics line under her belt and is also one of the heads of the film producers association.

Here's a quick chat with the living legend:

On her acting skills…

Atiqa mentions how she learned acting on the set/ at the shoots as there were no acting schools back in the day. One fine day in 1993, on the sets of her TV serial Dasht, the legendary Sabiha Khanum, who was playing her grandmother in the serial, took her on the side and explained how to emote for the camera through her eyes while delivering the dialogues. Not to blink but to pause and move the eye lids in a way that expresses the moment whether it's a feeling of vulnerability or romance or fierceness. The irony is that today she is working with Sabiha Khanum's grand-daughter Sarish Khan in Syed Noor's upcoming movie and is mentoring her.

On cross-border artist situation…

Talking about her first trip to India in 1991 when she had packed her bags and wanted to work in Bollywood. She had a limited amount of money so she booked Taj Hotel for 15 days and through mutual  friends met producers and directors in India at dinners. Within those days the buzz was out that a girl has come from Pakistan and the showman met and immediately offered her Khalnayak. She also got offered a film by Randhir Kapoor and another one by Sanjay Khan. But somehow while returning to Pakistan she had a moment where she decided and made a pact to herself that she will work in her own country and establish herself here.

"It was a gut feeling and I'm glad I took that decision back then." She adds that the people of India are amazing and has lead to long life friendships with Sanjay Khan and his family including Zayed Khan, Hritik Roshan and so on. She concludes that Pakistan has given great recognition to her talent.

Present…
Currently she is taking interesting character roles in the new Pakistani film industry. She wants to revive and remake Waheed Murad classics and that's what is on her wish-list!