Actress Mahira Khan, known for her popular television programs and her co-starring role with Shah Rukh Khan in the film "Raees," opened up about the criticism she received in the wake of the 2016 Uri assaults, which led to the unofficial ban on Pakistani artists in India. The actress also spoke about the impact the experience had on her mental health.
Mahira Khan recently recalled the time she experienced a severe reaction after appearing in "Raees" with Shah Rukh Khan. She added that the circumstance had a negative impact on her mental health and eventually resulted in a bipolar illness diagnosis. The Uri attack's aftermath, which strained India-Pakistan relations and had an impact on fields like sports and the arts, coincided with the publication of "Raees."
Additionally, she discussed the 2017 incident in which images of her smoking with actor Ranbir Kapoor surfaced online. Mahira was among the most well-known Pakistani performers to suffer the effects of this unofficial ban, along with fellow actor Fawad Khan, singers Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Atif Aslam, and musician Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
That year was difficult, she reflected on the effect of this experience on her mental health during an interview on the FWhy podcast. In the same year when Verna and Raees came out, as well as the same year that the whole picture thing occurred, it broke me. Then all of a sudden, there comes this attack, and everything turns political. Always political; never not political. It's always political with India.
In 2017, "Raees" came out at the same time as the Ranbir Kapoor issue concerning the viral smoking photos. When reflecting on that time, the actress revealed that she received a lot of criticism, describing it as an "unexpected" turn of events.
Mahira described how she would get threatening messages and really unfavorable tweets. "Continuous tweets, continuous. In reality, I frequently received spooky calls. The only thing I wanted was for it to be released in my nation; right, fine, I can't promote it in India. He is immensely popular here, and I knew that people would flock to the theaters to see it. That was very tragic. It triggered depression and anxiety that I had previously hidden inside of me, she claimed.
