Khan, Mahira

Mahira was born on December 21, 1984 in the city of Karachi in an Urdu - Pashtun- speaking family. Her father Hafiz was born in Delhi during the time of British India and immigrated to Pakistan after the partition of the country ^[4] . Her younger brother Hassan is a journalist by profession ^[5] .

Mahira attended the Foundation Public School in Karachi, where she received a certificate of secondary education at sixteen. At the age of 17, she moved to California to pursue higher education, where she attended Santa Monica College in Los Angeles ^[6] . She then entered the University of Southern California for a bachelor's degree. However, she did not finish her studies and returned to Pakistan in 2008. While studying in the United States, she worked as a cashier at the Rite Aid store in Los Angeles and was used to wiping floors, cleaning toilets, working at the checkout and closing the store ^[7]

Mahira started her career as a VJ on MTV Pakistan and hosted the “Most Wanted” program, which aired three times a week. Then in 2008, she hosted the Weekends with Mahira program on Aag TV, where she showed video clips, chatted with star guests, and received calls from viewers.

In 2011, Mahira made her debut in the movie "Bol" ^{[8] [9]} . Her character is Ayesha, a girl from a conservative middle-class family living in the old part of Lahore , who shares a mutual passion for music with love for Mustafa; played by . The film received commercial success and critical acclaim and has become one of the highest grossing films in the history of Pakistani cinema . In the same year, Mahira made her television debut in the television drama "Neeyat".

From 2013 to 2014, she hosted The Lighter Side of Life on TUC, where she gave interviews to local stars.

In early 2017, Mahira made her debut in Bollywood in the movie "The Rich" with Shahrukh Khan in the title role ^{[10] [11] [12]} . Shortly before the release of the film, the Indian Film Producers Association (IMPPA) and the India Film Producers Guild decided to ban inolent films with actors, actresses and technical personnel from Pakistan due to the tension created after the terrorist attack in 2016 in Uri, until the situation becomes normal. There were rumors that scenes involving Mahira would be removed from the film or she would be replaced by some other actress. Shahrukh Khan stated that she would not be allowed to advertise the film in India ^{[13] [14] [15]} , but she managed to communicate with the public during the film’s advertising campaign only via Skype ^[16] . Despite the scandals, the film was released in January and was a commercial success. But in the homeland of Mahira, the film was banned ^[17] .

In the same year, she began her career as a singer. In addition, she will soon be seen in Verna Shoaib Mansour's film ^[18] . She also starred in the movie Maula Jatt 2 along with Fawad Khan .

In 2006, in Los Angeles, Mahira met Ali Askari. In 2007, she married him according to Islamic traditions , despite the ban of her father ^[19] . In 2009 she gave birth to a son, and in 2015 the couple divorced.