Mahira Khan makes rare comment on viral photos of her smoking with Ranbir Kapoor: ‘Is my career over?'

Mahira Khan received a ton of backlash after pictures of her smoking with actor Ranbir Kapoor in New York surfaced on social media in 2017.

Mahira Khan is one of the leading actors in Pakistani cinema. The actor courted major controversy a few years ago when she was spotted smoking with Ranbir Kapoor in New York. The actor made a rare comment on the relentless trolling that she faced during that time in a new interview with BBC Asian Network, and said that she thought her career would be over following the incident. (Also read: Mahira Khan says she wanted son Azlan to walk her down the aisle on wedding day: ‘It was very big moment for me’)

Mahira and Ranbir were spotted together in New York in 2017.

What Mahira said

During the interview, Mahira said: “It’s been a crazy ride. My audience has travelled this journey with me. The divorce, having a baby and my baby being along in this journey with me, being single for so long, those photos coming out, a ban somewhere else in another country… it has just been insane. Those were tough times and amazing times but there also have been moments that have been tougher but I have chosen not to share them.”

‘I wouldn’t get out of bed'

She went on to add, “When the photos came out there was an article called ‘The Little White Dress’ that was published in BBC and I failed to see the brilliance of that article at that time. In fact, I think I may have. I remember reading it and thinking, ‘Is my career over?’ In that article, it was written that ‘here is a woman who has achieved this kind of success that no one in Pakistan has achieved, all the endorsements and all that, and now it is all gone. What is going to happen to her?’ I read it and I was like ‘Damn.’ But I told myself, ‘Are you mad? This is going to end,’ maybe it was the 14-year-old Mahira that told me. But I won’t lie that that time was very tough. I wouldn’t get out of the bed, I was crying daily, it affected my professional and personal life.”

Mahira made her foray into Bollywood in Raees, where she starred opposite Shah Rukh Khan. On the work front, Mahira was last seen in The Legend of Maula Jatt alongside Fawad Khan. The actor tied the knot with Salim Karim in 2023.