“I used to feel very insecure about myself."
Amna Ilyas has slammed the colourism issues in the Pakistani entertainment industry, and what she has personally faced.
On the FWhy Podcast, she spoke to Frieha Altaf about her personal issues and some of the challenges she has faced whilst working in showbiz.
Amna touched on the subject of colourism and revealed there were times when her makeup would be a few shades lighter so that she would appear fair on shoots.
She said that the industry needed to be more accepting of darker skin tones.
Amna stated: “When I said in my speech that the industry should accept an actor or an artist the way they are, it was because I did not like being made two tones lighter in shoots.
“I used to feel very insecure about myself.
“I didn’t know this happened until it happened to me. We all have a wheatish complexion at home.
“It started hurting when I was at work or in my professional zone, or when I thought I’m very stunning as a model, but someone comes to me, puts on a white base everywhere trying to change me.
“And that is when you start feeling there is something wrong with me.
“I believe that, if for a role, you need a dark-skinned person or a Caucasian, white person, there is a market where you can find that particular actor for the role, rather than changing them.
“Instead of making a fair person dark to turn them into a character, you will find an actor like that.
“And maybe he is more deserving, but because a fair actor is a known actor, there are layers to it, why do we do what we do?”
Amna recalled an incident with a photographer that resulted in financial loss after she walked away.
“There was this one photographer, who, while I was shooting, tried to touch me inappropriately. I still feel very awful.
“I have this quality, I block bad things in my brain. So that happened and I remember, I never went back to his studio. I never shot with him again. It hurt me financially.
“But I have forgiven myself and I have forgiven that person.”
Amna Ilyas delved into her childhood and spoke about her family, revealing that when she was 13, she lost her sister.
Speaking of the trauma, Amna shared that her sister Huma passed away unexpectedly at the age of 22.
Opening up about the time, Amna recalled:
“We don’t know ourselves. It was a cardiac arrest, and by the time we took her to the hospital doctors were trying to figure out what happened.
“Huma was just sitting on the couch and started getting fits.
“She said something was happening to her and she could not breathe. My mum picked her up and took her to the nearest hospital.
“I remember my sister woke me up and said we have to go to the hospital because Huma is unwell.”
Upon reaching the hospital, she saw her mother cradling Huma’s head in her lap.
She revealed that her father passed away when she was very young and her mother raised Amna and her siblings as a single parent whilst working as a nurse.
After facing numerous hardships, Amna Ilyas admitted that she became street-smart and taught herself how to deal with difficult situations.
She spoke of acceptance and gave the message: “As women, throughout our lives, we work so hard and achieve so much.
“But we are conditioned, somewhere in the back of our minds, that something is lacking and we are not capable.
“Only men can do this. This stays in our head and because of this we struggle with acceptance.”
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