Laila Wasti is a well-known name for Pakistan’s media industry; daughter of legendary artists Rizwan Wasti and Tahira Wasti, Laila has been associated to the industry since her early life. However, she never wanted to act because she was shy and quite. Interestingly, we have always seen her holding a poised and elegant position as an actress and without a shadow of doubt, she excels at her craft.
In an exclusive interview with Hassan Choudary of Something Haute, Laila talks about her foray in the industry, why she took a break and her comeback as well as her latest project Dunk.
“My mother and father used to encourage me a lot but I didn’t want to pursue it. I even learned playing harmonium as a child and even hated that; even though music really helped me later on in life. I was 16 or 17 when my mother had written a mystery play Begum Haveli and Kazim Pasha sahab was directing it and he asked me to act, and I love mysteries as a genre so I was intrigued,” she said.
Nepotism is a hot debate in the industry these days, but Laila believes it is unnecessary. Being the daughter of beloved stars, she admits that she came from a place of privilege and that helped her in the start but it didn’t guarantee her projects if she hadn’t worked hard.
“I was born and raised in the environment where all the legendary artists and showbiz people were in my surroundings. It was inevitable for me to not know them and they offered me roles but I never took the profession for granted, once I started working. Nobody can survive here with consistent bad work if they have parents in the industry; it is impossible,” she said.
Not many know that Laila has studied filmmaking for 4 years in UCLA. “I wanted to expand my horizon and learn more; I felt a director is responsible for everything on screen so I went to LA to study the craft.”
Read: Is Dunk really an unnecessary evil?
Unfortunately, the actor went through a very troubling time in her life when she was diagnosed with cancer and later went under several surgeries. “What I have learnt it that if I cannot do 5 simple things in my life due to my differently-abled body, there are always 5 more things that I can do that someone else cannot. And I tend to focus on those 5 things and be great; shukar Alhumdulillah,” she added.
Talking about Dunk, “I learnt so much from Badar Mehmood and I have followed his work as well. Irrespective of who has lied — a man or a woman — a lie has destroyed someone’s life and that is what we are telling. There are so many dramas telling the stories of woman who have faced sexual harassment,” she said.
Watch her complete interview to know about her inspirational journey:
