Mehwish Hayat appeared in an interview with BBC Asian Network in 2019, during the interview it was revealed that she was offered Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s role in Fanney Khan and Huma Qureshi’s role in Dedh Ishqiya.
Answering a question about what she thinks about how India treated Pakistani artists amid the tension between two countries, Mewhish said, “I think its unfair because all our actors who have worked in Bollywood, unfortunately we are not given the kind of respect we deserve,” adding “if you let the actor work and at the same time you don’t let them attend the premiers or even [let] them promote their films. Nothing is bigger than the self respect.”
She further said, “It was a conscious decision that I wanted to stay here in my country and work for my Pakistani cinema.”
The anchor said, “You were offered Hum Quershi’s role in Dairh Ishqiya, which was along side Madhuri Dixit, you were offered Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s role in Fanney Khan, these are the big films that you turned down.”
Talking about the reason behind rejecting Dairh Ishqiya the Actress said she had an issue with one of the scenes in the movie.
During the interview, she also talked about that how happy she felt when she came to knew that she was being awarded with Sitara-e-Imtiaz and also shared her experience of the criticism she received over the award.
