Shehnaz Khan Old Pashto Actress Pictures Interview Biography

Shahnaz Hussain was born in 1950 in village Shergarh, district Okara (Punjab), which is located to the south-west of Lahore. Her family belongs to the Sayyed class and owns a substantial amount of farmland. Shahnaz has two siblings [a sister and brother.

At young age, Shahnaz was a rebellious person. Thus she left home without her parent consent to seek a movie career in Karachi, where her sister lived at the time. But events did not turn out the way Shahnaz had imagined; She could not establish a foothold in the Urdu movie industry as a mainstream actress. However, this did not influence her committment and determination to make it in the Urdu movie industry. She just left Karachi for Lahore. In Lahore, she got a chance in a pashto movie named "Da Pukhtun Thora" that made her the heart throb of millions of pashtuns. In subsequent years, she had the opportunity to play memorable roles in pashto movies including Khana Badoosh, Dehqaan, Chagha and Da Marg Saudagar. Of these, Chagha and Da Marg Saudagar were released in Urdu language as well.

Shahnaz did not want to be confined to pashto movie roles, and seriously weighed her options. She wanted to be known for her talent in Urdu movie; thus she married Urdu and Punjabi movie director Iqbal Kashmiri with the expectation of promoting her movie career in Urdu movies. It turned that Iqbal Kashmiri could not help Shahnaz either in realizing her most cherished dream. The marriage ended after a brief period. Shahnaz has a son named Faisal Kashmiri from this marriage, who is currently a movie director himself in Lahore.

After her failed attempts to make it in Urdu movies coupled with a failed marriage in Lahore, Shahnaz decided to return to Karachi again. She got married to police DIG Fataih Ali [currently retired]. Shahnaz has two daughters and a son from this marriage. Unfortunately, the marriage did not work; thus she separated from Fataih Ali and now lives with her children.

What a difference a personal commitment and vision of ones career makes. Shahnaz did not get what she had dreamed of [i.e., a role in mainstream Urdu movies], and although she was the heart throb of millions of pashto movie lovers, that is not what She cared for. Her pashtun fans always wondered what happened to Shahnaz despite her splendid pashto movie career and hordes of pashtun fans. The sage of Shahnaz movie career reminds of a very famous poem by

U.S.

poet Robert Frost:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

I must mention here that pashto movie actor Badar Munir had a deep love corner for Shahnaz and worked strenuously to marry her but falied to win her heart. This trite adage that "no one gets all one wants in this world" impresses me so much when I think of Badar Munir not being able to see his dream of a family with Shahnaz come true. Folks think he could have any pashto actress he wanted to; now we know he could not.