Emaan Khan is currently winning hearts across Pakistan with her moving perforomance as Neha in the drama ‘Kuch Ankahi’.
She was recently a guest on Fuchsia Magazine’s talk show where she opened up about being shamed for her skin color when she was in the early stages of her career.
Khan recalled an instance when a director commented about her dark skin to her mother while she was auditioning.
“When I came here I had to listen to a lot of hurtful comments about my complexion. My color is a bit dull. When I was young I had gone somewhere for an audition, so they called me in and then ask ‘Is this Eman?’ And my mother said ‘Yes’.
“‘She’s so dark!’ they said right away. And I remember at that point tears came to my eyes.”
Khan recalled that the people told her mother that they were looking for fair skinned people for this project, and didn’t want people like her.
Khan further mentioned how her mother stood up for her at that point:
‘I went outside and stood there. From inside, I could hear my mother saying ‘From now onwards, Emaan will never work with you’. And this has happened. Recently, they called me again and my mother refused to allow them to work with me again.”
Khan said that she will never be ashamed of her own skin color because she likes it so much. She also revealed how makeup artists will try to encourage her to lighten her skin for shoots.
“They would say to me ‘Tum na thori white base use kya karo’ And I would simply tell them that this is my complexion and this is the base I will keep using. I don’t need any suggestions from you. I know what exactly I have to do here.”
Khan said directors still do taunt her about not having fair skin, but she refuses to work in the same project and leaves, and finds better opportunities because of these insults.
Listen to the complete interview here:
