From the camera to the kitchen

Mehreen Raheel spills the beans on transitioning from acting to cooking

If you are a woman stuck in a rut with your career or wondering how best to balance it with the demands of motherhood, there can be no more luminous example of how to get it right than former actor and model Mehreen Raheel.

From working in front of the camera to nurturing a passion for cooking and fitness, the daughter of legendary actor Seemi Raheel began her career as a model before transitioning to film and television. Speaking at Ahmad Ali Butt’s podcast, Mehreen spoke about taking a step back from the world of screens to focus on her children and her new passion for cooking and fitness.

On raising children

“You see, motherhood is a very powerful tool Allah has given every woman,” she begins the Zindagi Gulzar Hai actor. “Some children require more from their mothers – especially those who are differently-abled. My daughter is on the spectrum, so for me to feel comfortable leaving her with an attendant or with somebody at school, I needed to feel confident that she would be able to move ahead comfortably on her own without me in the backseat.”

Wanting to soak in her children’s childhood, leaving behind a once-busy schedule in the television industry was the natural solution for Mehreen. “I was 12 when I started work,” reflects the former actor and model. “I had seen so much in my life already and I wanted to enjoy my children. I didn’t want to fast-forward it. I have been raising them and seen every one of their milestones, and I’m very, very attached to them.”

Having once been a fearless, restless teenager to now moving at a slower pace without judgement, Mehreen is adamant that motherhood – particularly with a differently-abled child under her care – has revolutionised her outlook on life.

“Becoming a mother has made me a better human being,” she muses. “It’s made me forgiving. It’s made me respectful towards everyone. That’s what motherhood does to you. It teaches you to accept people the way they are without judging them.”

Life under the spotlight

As a young girl marking out her territory in front of the camera, Mehreen’s life once looked very different from what it is today – and like anyone else in the world of showbiz, her career came with its downsides.

“It took away a lot of my time from the people that I loved,” recalls Mehreen. “I became a machine – I was travelling, I was working. Now that I look back, it was one of the most amazing things in my life. But I only had time for me. My parents have always been the nucleus, the centre of my life. But I had no time for my extended family.”

Having once cherished a career others can only dream of, Mehreen maintains that whatever other people’s perceptions of her may be, she was never “proud”. “Allah kept me grounded,” she says firmly. “I was very focused because this was my time, my money. When you go on set, you go there to work, and when people would arrive later or misbehave, it did bother me. It was very annoying. So maybe because of that, people thought I was very snooty.”

When it came to films Mehreen knew it would not be her forever career. “I did it just for the experience, to see myself on the big screen,” she confesses. “I could have done it better. Much better. The way the songs were shot was nice, but there were a lot of problems, let’s just keep it that way.”

It was in television, however, that Mehreen found her “true calling”. “I loved the scripts that came my way, even though people thought for the longest time that I couldn’t act – and I think I couldn’t. When you’re a model, it’s different. And when you’re an actor, the fire in you comes out.”

That fire also helped Mehreen work out which production houses were worth her time. “I have worked with a lot of people – you name it, I’ve done it,” she says. “You always go back to where you are valued as an actor and where your time is respected. When your needs are looked after and when you are treated like an actual human being, you are able to shine better.”

Cooking and fitness