Models and actors Zhalay Sarhadi and Amna Ilyas recently made an appearance on Time Out with Ahsan Khan and discussed early careers, upbringing and lessons learnt from the industry.

Ilyas opened up about how she was insecure about her thin body and dark skin colour growing up. Crediting her elder sister Salma Ilyas and their mutual friend, Aqib Ilyas, she said, “I started modelling during my school days but I didn’t have that confidence. I was insecure and considered myself an average-looking girl till Aqib showed up at my house and told my sister that he wanted to do a photoshoot with me.”

Telling that she got compliments for looking like model Zara Sheikh in the photos, Ilyas shared how her second photoshoot landed her on the cover page of a magazine called She. “It was a good start for me. The camera just sort of loves me.”

Moving on to Zhalay and how her family network spread out in all spheres of the entertainment industry, the Nazo actor shared that she was never serious about this as a career, to begin with, but now that she looks back, it was a smooth, natural process for her. “I’ve always been on the stage. From the get-go, this is the life I saw. I was that annoying person who’ll sing, act, dance, and model anywhere. I started with Radio Pakistan for fun until the legendary Sajid Hassan told me ‘till when will you waste yourself doing all of this? You’re not incentivising it’ and then he introduced me to mainstream television.”

Since the two already had family and close friends in the industry growing up, the duo didn’t face any setbacks from their family’s end while trying to enter the field. Sarhadi especially credits it to how she was raised as a “person” and not as a “girl” by her family. “I was not raised as a girl. I was told to be my own person who has to fend for themselves and be whoever you want to be.”

Ilyas, however, did face a certain setback from the extended family and society. “There was always a perception that girls who enter the media are ‘bad girls’. I am sort of an example for my younger cousins to fight back because of course, the industry is cutthroat and tough but times are changing and we should stand up for ourselves. It is a good and respectable business.” Speaking about how “revealing clothes” and “late hours” are the major reasons why women aren’t permitted to go into media, Ilyas continued that there’s so much behind the camera that women can do as well. “Just look at our own channel, there are so many women in production. There used to be only men behind the camera because of late hours but if we continue to persist, things will change in our favour.”

When the host Ahsan Khan called Sarhadi a look-alike of the superstar Priyanka Chopra, the actor got a little offended. “I’m a big fan of hers but I don’t like to be like that. I’m Zhalay Sarhadi, that’s it. Ever since I entered the industry, people have called me a look-alike of Priyanka. In fact, an Indian publication even reported that I’m Priyanka’s body double. One person even compared me to their uncle. They said you look like him without the moustache. I mean why?”

Laughing, Ilyas also lamented how she’s been compared to many actors and models in the past. “Every month, there’s news of me resembling a new person. People have compared me to Zara Sheikh, Meera, Malaika Arora and even a boy from the industry. Someone said I look like Mohsin Abbas Haider.”

Apart from television and modelling, both Ilyas and Sarhadi are film actors too. Speaking about an item number Sarhadi performed in the 2015 Jalaibee, she said, “Calling it an item number is debatable. I was asked if it was an item number then why was I wearing so many clothes? People even asked me why I had full sleeves and my clothes weren’t even backless.”

Ilyas chimed in and added that the major issue with the song wasn’t the wardrobe but the dance also. “The choreography wasn’t up to the mark. You can do better with more energy into the song.” To which the Jalaibee actor responded, “I am a good dancer, you can ask Ahsan also. I had rehearsed the song and suddenly on a rainy day in Lahore, I was taken to the set and shown completely different steps. In the end, I didn’t even know what I was doing in front of the camera. It was unfair.”

Ilyas also opened up about her experience of working with director Saqib Malik for the 2019 film Baaji. “It was an honour working with a director who has such close attention to detail. A women-centric film like Baaji was a big risk for him because even now, our films are very male-oriented. To tell a tale of two heroines was a brave decision by Saqib. I fulfilled all my dreams in that one film from emotions to dance to action and drama. It had it all and especially with a cast that included Osman, Meera, Mohsin and Nayyar Ejaz jee.”

Sarhadi once spoke against Esra Bilgic, who got famous in Pakistan for her role as Halime Sultan in Ertugurul, being chosen as a brand ambassador in Pakistan. She said it was a big slap on all of us. Defending her statement, she said that it was taken “out of context.”

“She’s an international star and I have nothing against her. I was speaking for our people. When we’re chosen for a brand, we’re told that they have a small budget and we’ll have to work with further deductions. Esra is at that place because her industry supported her and our industry and government should make their own stars bigger. We should stop borrowing stardom. Shah Rukh Khan is an example. He was created, not borrowed. We should learn.”

Ilyas has often spoken against getting botox or whitening injections. Speaking about it, she expanded that she’s not against facials or acne treatments. “A lot of people around us in our industry have altered their faces and I’m not in favour. We’re celebrities and people look up to us. We should be setting an example of being comfortable in our skin and not otherwise. You’re very depressed if you are feeling the pressure to aesthetically change your features and skin colour to meet a certain conventional standard of beauty. I’m sorry but you need therapy, not those surgeries and injections. Invest in a psychologist and not doctor appointments,” she concluded.