Spotlight Kehkeshan Awan
By
[Sadaf Fayyaz]
Tell something about your basic education and early life?
My education is a blend of Psychology and Business Studies in Marketing. My childhood was spent on Pakistan Air Force bases all over the country and was full of fun and adventure.
How were you offered a role in Dhoop Kinare? There was another serial in which you worked, named Jungle, tell something about it too.
Before Dhoop Kinare I had worked in ‘Jungle’ and another play called ‘Asman Tak Dewaar’. When Sahira Kazmi asked me to work in Dhoop Kinare and I accepted as doing a play with her and Haseena Moin as it was an exciting option.
How many serials have you worked in total?
Three Serials
Out of all the co-stars which one is your favorite?
Everyone in Dhoop Kinare was a role-model of sorts. Everyone I guess! And this includes the very competent production team as well.
Tell something about your ICI job and achievements.
Moving from the media to the business world was not easy as I had to continuously work on establishing my credibility in the corporate world’s peer group. Being a woman definitely adds another dimension to the career challenges. Looking back I guess my key achievement was to successfully lead the sales function which opened up a new path for the career progression of women in the company that I was working with.
You didn’t continue a career in acting. Is there any reason for that?
A full time job didn’t leave me with much time for pursuing my interest in performing arts.
Tell something about SIRAAT.
SIRAAT, launched in 2008, is my capability consultancy portfolio focused on developing business skills. In Arabic SIRAAT means ‘the path’ and as an acronym for my work it stands for ‘Strategic Intervention for Resource Activation and Training’.
What is the best part after an acquisition and the worst?
The key challenge in an acquisition environment is the integration of processes and teams. Good communication with all the stakeholders is extremely important throughout the acquisition process. As the Corporate Communications manager I learnt a great deal about this from the acquisition of ICI by Akzo Nobel.
Your ‘Anji’ role sounds a very sweet and loving kind lady, are you like that in real life too?
The fun in playing the ‘Anji’ character was that she is a full, 180 degrees different from me. I am career minded and enjoy being in a work environment. It was great to play this character. The one thing in common though is the passive-assertive trait. I too find myself sitting on-the-fence quite often -– not wanting to hurt others’ feelings but not wanting to give-in to their wishes either!
Who are your favorite actors?
I have always admired Uzma Gillani, Shabana Azmi and Om Puri.
How do you feel after almost two decades, when people admire your acting?
It makes me appreciate the immense talent and efforts of Sahira Kazmi and Haseena Moin who put products like Dhoop Kinare on the entertainment map of the world.
How do you take criticism?
We all like to think that we are good at what we do until someone points out the gaps… Over the years I have worked on developing the capacity to appreciate criticism and use it constructively. I now also train people in giving work-related feedback effectively specially in appraisal interviews.
Share your experience of working with Haseena Moin and Sahira Kazmi.
I was initially scared of her because I thought that I was not doing justice to the ‘anji’ character as she had envisioned it. At the time of doing Dhoop Kinare I also held a full time job and at times found it difficult to manage the two together. However, Haseena Aaapa’s script took care of the problem for me. The characterization and dialogues were so crisp that one didn’t have to struggle much to make the charters come alive!
I saw Sahira Kazmi as a perfectionist. And yet she was willing to take a risk with some relatively new members in the cast. She drove me to do better than my best-rehearsed performance and then she did a brilliant job of editing the scenes which made them look very natural.
What is your biggest desire and expectation?
To see our beautiful country progress and its people become one of the happiest in the world.
List any funny or memorable incident during shooting.
All of the six months of rehearsing for and recording of Dhoop Kinare were funny / fun-filled.
If you are given a chance to work with Haseena Aaapa, what would be your response?
If I can devote the right kind of time to it – definitely!
Are you a deadline oriented person or let the things happen their way?
I work best when a deadline is staring me in the face and is too close for comfort.
What is the most difficult part of acting? You find acting or your current job more difficult? Why?
Dhoop Kinare was a blend of comedy and romance. Both are difficult to do. It’s easy to cry in a scene but very difficult to make people laugh through a scene. Training people is difficult in a different way. People have different learning styles and designing a program that addresses all those styles in a short duration of one or two days is always very challenging.
What was the public response towards you when Dhoop Kinare aired?
At that time I got the feeling that the response was average. But for some reason the liking for the play kept getting stronger with each passing year. Two decades on I was pleasantly surprised to see that it’s still poplar here and abroad as well.
Share a few lines on "Glass ceiling" in Pak companies. Is there any you faced being a female manager?
The Glass ceiling is a cruel reality in many corporations in Pakistan. Companies look at gender diversity in terms of the percentage of women employed in their organization. This is nothing more than paying lip-service to the issue. We need to look at the number of women in senior commercial roles in any organization to see that company’s mind-set towards women. In many organizations in Pakistan women get dropped out of the race for senior commercial positions and get stuck in middle management. We need to raise the awareness and accountability in this area from platforms such as the OICCI.
What are the most challenging and difficult part for a woman to be a leader?
The leadership challenges are the same for both men and women. One additional challenge for women, depending on the environment they are in, is to manage mindsets that might not accept women in leadership roles.
What is your message for the readers?
Maintain a healthy work‐life balance and enjoy the simple joys of life.
Very good.
ReplyDeleteThanks for refreshing the memories of 1 of the all time best drama serial ever on-air in TV history and Kehkashan’s role 1 of the pioneer in that!
ReplyDeleteLoved to hear from her again after so long … and really impress by her current standings … really a role model for all especially for women out there in our country and hopefully improve women empowerment in the country with respect they deserved!
Thanks Sadaf for the beautiful interview … couldn’t take my eyes off while going through it :) the thing I liked it most in the interview was that you stick more with ‘Women Empowerment’ questions rather than going into old fashioned personal questionnaire.
Sadaf,
ReplyDeleteFinally I am in position to visit my blogfriends. Read current posts. The ones on eve-teasing, prostitution and GHAIRAT are thought provoking. I have strong views on the first two and feel that it is possible to curb it, if not eradicate it totally. I detest double standard persons and am vocal about it when I meet someone like that. Interviews were done well, specially on Ayesha and this one.
Take care
Thanks jack........
ReplyDelete