In a candid interview, Pakistani actress Sabeena Farooq has opened up about the struggles she has faced in the industry and expressed her admiration for Indian fans as she compared them with their Pakistani counterparts.
Sabeena Farooq, who has garnered immense popularity for her roles in Tere Bin and Kabli Pulao, shared that she has been subjected to online harassment and abuse from some Pakistani fans who have attributed her success solely to her association with established actors like Wahaj Ali and Yumna Zaidi.
"I'm not happy about certain fandoms messaging me and saying that I got Kabli Pulao because I worked with certain big names in the industry," she stated.
"I worked with Wahaj Ali and Yumna Zaidi before Kabli Pulao aired, and many of the fans are attributing my success to Tere Bin's success. This is a credit that I would not want to see being taken away from me, as I did Kabli Pulao a year and a half before signing Tere Bin."
Sabeena Farooq expressed disappointment that none of her senior colleagues in the industry have come to her defence against the online abuse and the attempts to diminish her achievements.
"No senior actors have ever defended me in the face of this hate that I was getting and my credit that was being taken away," she remarked.
In a surprising comparison, she praised Indian fans for their ability to distinguish between an actor and their work, unlike some Pakistani fans who have targeted her with personal attacks.
"Indian fans are better than Pakistani fans as they can differentiate between an actor and her work," she had asserted previously. "Pakistani fans kept abusing me, thinking I am Haya (Tere Bin)."
Farooq clarified that her previous statements regarding Indian fans were not motivated by a desire to work in India. "Many people said that I am giving such statements as I want to work in India after my statement came out, but that is not true, and I still feel my Indian fans celebrated me more."