She’s dressed casually with her hair tied back, chatting to me about her newly-acquired African grey parrot and she looks as dazzling as she did some 30 years ago in dramas Sitara aur Mehrunnisa and Dasht, in films Jo Darr Gaya, Wo Marr Gaya and in countless shows on television.

Juggling marriages, divorces, children, grandchildren, a cosmetics line, charity work, being on and off camera as an actor or producer has not worn her out. In print, person and on camera she has what is known as a timeless beauty — and it’s not just skin deep.

I wonder what it feels to be so beautiful?

“Oh gosh!” she laughed in response, “I really believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is more to do with the nature of the person. Perhaps I’m blessed that I was born looking a certain way but that isn’t all there is about me. I have had personal struggles which have gone beyond the way I look.”

She recently celebrated 30 years of being in media.

"Wow, what a line of successes!” she beamed, “When I was looking at the display of archives for my 30 years’ celebration, I could see a vast range of accomplishments. I don’t take all the credit myself as I could not have achieved anything single-handedly. But what a tremendously blessed life I have had. It gives me a lot of comfort to feel that I am able to help people around me.

My children are now grown up and grandchildren have become central to my life. My make-up brand is in its 10th year, I want to work with the breast cancer awareness cause and be very focused on it. And for as long as I am around, I will continue to work as an actor and producer. Even with all the challenges, I would still do it all over again.”

Don’t good-looking people get an easy ride?

Atiqa disagrees, “The challenges are tremendous and it is a difficult burden to carry. Expectations are different. People want you to be a certain way and do certain things in life. Loag bari mushkil se aap ko sukoon se jeene dete hain.

The intelligent will be able to read between the lines of what I am saying. There is always someone who is trying to get you; there are people who have a crush on you. I had my first stalker when I was 12 which is unnatural, intimidating and borderline frightening for a young girl.”

“Today, as an actor in her mid-life, I feel challenged as to why everything is about 20-year olds; why can’t a woman in her 30s and 40s have a story to tell? So I don’t just sit around waiting for those ideas to come to me but try to develop those as a producer. Every character represents the society and should have a purpose, even if it sends negative energy across the screen.”

Yet, she worked around the challenges. “Sometimes I am not in the mood to be dolled up which is often because I am constantly juggling roles of being a mother, wife, working woman, social worker, actor and producer,” she said.

“When I want to step out not looking glamorous, I have more of a problem with it than others do because women still come up to me to say ‘aap abhi bhi itni khubsoorat hain, aap ne na make-up kiya na baaal banaye … ’.

When you have been told all your life how good you look, then to not look so good can be something that you have to adjust around. I have been told that as a baby I should have been in a diaper or a baby food commercial.

“Now in my mid-40s, I find myself wondering how will I deal with old age? I hope I am balanced enough so as not to be depressed about being aged and old. Being beautiful is a challenge, especially when you are in the limelight too much, in the same way as being unaware or uneducated is.

You can never go out for a meal with your family without being stared at. I have never been comfortable with being stared at. This is why I decided to convert this public interest in me to social work.”

Eight years ago, she decided to work on a breast cancer awareness campaign with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital. “I want to work with this project and be very focused on it for as long as I’m around,” she said, “While having a chat with Dr Faisal, the CEO of the hospital, I was shocked to learn that Pakistan has the highest incidence of breast cancer in Asia and the fourth highest in the world.

But to discuss it is considered taboo. He said ‘We can’t have Imran Khan talk about it, people will laugh’. So I said, ‘You know what? I will do it’! There was a time when people shied away from talking about breast cancer and today with all the efforts of the team, when cameras go on the streets, women talk about breast cancer.”

Unlike a lot of present-day actors who we see ad nauseum on screen, 30 years in the media and Atiqa is still not over-exposed.

“I consciously divide my time between my family, acting and helping the community,” she said. “I set up the producers’ association and chaired it for some time, now I’m setting up an actors’ association. When I was younger, I got a lot of offers for romantic roles and love triangles but then the roles are few and far between. Usually, I dissect the character, argue with the writer and the director to understand where the character is coming from and what she is saying to society. The formula has worked because those characters are remembered for more than just the love angle.

“Today, as an actor in her mid-life, I feel challenged as to why everything is about 20-year olds; why can’t a woman in her 30s and 40s have a story to tell? So I don’t just sit around waiting for those ideas to come to me but try to develop those as a producer.

Every character represents the society and should have a purpose, even if it sends negative energy across the screen. For instance, Farida in Humsafar was a product of the society.”

She explained how a part of the empowerment process has been the fact that she is ‘stubborn-slash-resilient’. “I believe that nothing is unachievable or unattainable. If you are willing to work hard and with integrity, you will reach where you want to go.

I have experienced this repeatedly with television, my children, my cosmetics business and the breast cancer awareness cause. I have been tested, victimised, challenged but I don’t take no for an answer and the only time someone can make me go quiet is when I decide to go quiet.”

When she started her cosmetics business in 2004, she didn’t quite realise the complexities of the project. “I was the face for it for the past 10 years, I did print work, television for it and women have been loyal to the brand,” she says proudly.

“I am legit, pay my taxes and don’t take loans or do partnerships because debts frighten me. When you are an individual, it is not easy to survive in a market that is evolving rapidly and where you have to compete with international brands. There are difficulties in distribution and retail. We may not be visible and are still a counter-top brand but our presence is across the board and with time, we will grow.”

Her political affiliation remains different despite her marriage to Samar Ali Khan who belongs to another political party. “I am a Musharraf supporter,” she says firmly, “When I interviewed him a long time ago for television, I found him to be a good, admirable man. If you do a comparison of the state of things in his tenure and now, you would know for yourself why I support him.

Regardless of what people say, we are supposed to be living in a democratic state and look at the state of this country. Is it about impoverished people and the rich getting richer while the common man is strangled?”

Her faith remains with the younger generation today, “I love young people,” she said. “They have a good energy and I think they have the drive to take us out from the doldrums that we are in.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 8th, 2015

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