Ushna Shah will not apologise for expressing herself

Ushna Shah has often found herself in the middle of some controversy or another.

In a recent interview with Iffat Omar, the actor opened up about speaking her mind and being at the receiving end of trolls and hate. Later, she expressed her thoughts on the same topic on social media and said: “I have forsaken the dignity a celebrity must maintain and clarified/responded to each tweet/thought that has bothered the world so much. I’ve answered all the burning questions that have propelled hundreds of headlines. From your pizzas to your singers. I will speak on these no further. I have answered all “controversies” for them now and for the future.”

She continued: “I refuse to become a performer off-screen. I refuse to give up my right to express myself as a human and not a manufactured machine. I am dheet (stubborn) because I will continue to tweet/say what I believe is my right (as long as it is not discriminatory or hate speech, something I have never stood for).”

 “I do not want to pose a facade of perfection because I am far from it, and very happily so,” added Ushna.

“I don’t know how to be anyone else off-camera, that is another career on its own. That is a talent I do not possess,” she said. “It breaks my heart that I have already had to hide so many aspects of who I am just to fit in.. an example being my Canadian accent (I’ve changed it so often over the years that now it feels like another language which I speak when I’m outside the Pakistani industry or circles). I used to dance in school, I’ve been afraid to do so here, why? I am an artist, it is my art. I’ve always feared that my liberal, as well as foreign upbringing, would paint me as a bad person or my family as bad people, they’ve feared that also.”

In a successive post, the actor said that she is “bowing out of this circus”.

“What I want; what’s most important to me, is to create art. So for the countless hits, the spicy gossip, and the drawing-room discussions my name has entertained you with off-camera… you’re welcome. I have paid my dues, I’m bowing out of this circus,” wrote Ushna. “Now please, let me get back to work.”

While Ushna has received praise for her performances in dramas such as Balaa and Bewafa, her unfiltered thoughts on various topics have made headlines more than her work.