mahira khan. can she be an agent of change? thank you. is this a good time to be a female actor in pakistan? yes, i would say so. at the moment. it's a good time for us. as you are, it's quite a sensitive place to be. yes, um, i would say it used to be, it used to be. right now, i don't think it's sensitive to be in the public eye. to sort of do the things that you want to do, you know. and you're only just creeping up again. yes. is a tradition that has been lost to many people. because it was there once upon a time, right? and then we suffered through... i guess, politics affected it and there was a lull. one, of course, cinema got lost somewhere in all of this. started coming towards television. and all of the arts sort of converged into tv... but it's notjust about changing media, is it? it's also about cultural conservatism. and that's really a problem for people like you. before me went through. because, again, of the political climate, it changed. there was freedom as far as media was concerned. as far as cinema is concerned. the q

my guest today is pakistan's biggest female movie star, mahira khan.n a culturally conservative, male—dominated country, can she be an agent of change? mahira khan, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. is this a good time to be a female actor in pakistan? yes, i would say so. i think it's a good time to be a female in this world at the moment. it's a good time for us. but in pakistan, being female and being in the public eye, as you are, it's quite a sensitive place to be. yes, um, i would say it used to be, it used to be. right now, i don't think it's sensitive to be in the public eye. i think it's sensitive or it's a little bit challenging to break barriers, to sort of do the things that you want to do, you know. there's a particular question about the movie industry because i was looking at some astounding figures, going back to the ‘50s and ‘60s, there hundreds, i believe there were more than a thousand cinemas in pakistan and then by the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, after the rule or during the rule of general zia, the number of cinemas plummeted down to