Acting is one of the most effective means of communicating to the masses what the author or playwright has to say about a certain subject or issue. Therefore, in countries other than our own, those who aspire to become an actor have to go through a lot of training and have to study its technicalities. However, as this field is not so professional in Pakistan, those who start their career early in their childhood are considered to be the blessed ones.

That’s probably the reason why Myra Khan appears so confident on screen in whatever she does. She is busy these days shooting for many plays, the current one to be aired is Julie Julie while there are nine other projects that have been completed and will be aired soon after eid on various TV channels).

Besides acting, Myra is also becoming popular as a model and TV show host and is getting many of these assignments. No wonder she always seems to be on the move, rushing from one assignment to another.

Khan landed in acting watching her mother perform in various plays. She was in class four when she got her first break as a child star in a play titled Rang-e-Hina. Unlike her outgoing nature now, Myra Khan reveals that she was quite reserved and shy as a child. The best part about acting was that she was able to meet all the glittering TV stars of that time.

She bid adieu to this field for a short period, as her 10th standard drew closer. After her graduation, the actress made a comeback in Javed Fazli’s drama serial Jaissey Jante Nahin. In this age it is surprising that she is not much into gadgets, in fact, she doesn’t know how to operate a computer on her own.

Movies captivate her, and that is probably why watching movies of her choice is her favourite pastime. Action packed movies do not appeal to her taste. However, horror movies fascinated her while she was a child. “I have seen quite a lot of movies, but those horror flicks stand out to be my favourite ones, especially, Evil Dead, Freddy, Night Street Alms, Scary Movies, etc,” she discloses in her usual bubbly style.

She has a long list of her favourite movies to choose from and she gives reasons for liking them as well. Two movies have left a deep impression on the actress, one of them is Vastav. “What I liked about this movie was Sunju (Sunjay Dutt) no second thought about that, and then comes the story.

Although, it was inspired originally by some English movie, the local element in the story made it all the more interesting,” Myra Khan reveals. The next movie that she can’t stop raving about is Bridget Jones’ Diary. As it is a simple story of a chubby girl, she gibes that she can associate with, and, of course, she is all praise for Rene Zellweger’s performance. However, movies such as Mr Bean do not appeal to her.

The actors whom she admires are Al Pacino and Robert Redford from Hollywood, whereas among the Pakistani actors she appreciates the skills of Shafi Mohammad, Sohail Asghar, Uzma Gilani, Atiqa Odho, Samina Peerzada and last, but not the least, herself. When asked if she likes any actors from across the border Bollywood, she replies in the affirmative, and names Amitabh Bachchan.

Interestingly enough, Myra Khan has watched two Pakistani movies in a cinema house – Inteha and Yeh Dil App Ka Hua. Out of these two, Inteha by Samina Peerzada stands out to be a movie that she would love to watch again. “The story,” she said, “is true to life, and this did happen to one or two of my friends,” she explains. Khan has been offered to act in movies too.

Though interested in the idea, she prefers to put it off till some time in the future. She is quite hopeful about the future of Pakistani flicks as new directors such as Jami and Saquib are soon going to take the director’s seat. Apart from movies, the actress confessed to have loved watching the popular TV show Friends.

She enjoys listening to music while driving. Unlike many, she believes that, “Music does not change my mood, in fact, the choice of music changes with my mood,” says the young lady. She adores the songs by Whitney Houston, Bryan Adams, and Guns and Roses. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s numbers fascinate her, specially Hamd Wohi Khuda Hai.

Out of the new crop of Pakistani singers, she likes Fusion, Ali Zafar and Strings. Myra Khan enjoys listening to tracks of Hindi movies, like those of Roja, Bombay and the recent Ashiq Banaya. Sonu Nigham, stands out to be her favourite among the Indian singers. He rendered his voice to the songs of the movie Kal Ho Na Ho, and she simply loves those songs.

Although she claims that she is not a music collector, she has more than 300 CDs at her place. Her choice does keep changing but she makes sure that there are CDs of classy ’80’s numbers in her collection all the time.

Books are what Myra Khan is not so fond of. However, Manto’s stories do leave her mesmerized, yet disturbed too. Beside Manto, she has read quite a lot of novels by Sidney Sheldon and she had once also been hooked on the mushy Mills and Boon novels. One of the books that she has recently read and found interesting is Cathy Freston’s Expect a Miracle — Seven Spiritual Steps to Find Harmonyy.

Cookbooks are what she likes to buy when she visits a bookshop. The actress claims that during her school days, many hours were spent reading the Street Valley series.

She recalls being once caught by her mother reading till five in the morning. “My mother was surprised with what I was reading, and said ‘What in the world do you think you are reading?’” laughs Myra as she recalls.