Hina Khwaja Bayat has always been known for speaking her mind, and her recent appearance on Suno To Sahi proves that hasn’t changed. In a conversation with host Hina Niazi, the veteran actor opened up about everything from Javed Akhtar’s anti-Pakistan comments to the trolling she faced for her role in Churails.
Without holding back, she also slammed the culture of vaping on set.
‘Vaping is smoking’
Let’s start with vaping — because finally someone’s done sugar-coating it.
“All our young actors think, for some reason, that vaping isn’t smoking,” she said, clearly annoyed. “Someone once asked me if I mind if they vape in the same room as me, and I told them that I do, in fact, mind. I’m allergic to smoke.”
Her response didn’t go down too well. “They got so upset. They went like, ‘I don’t know why people who don’t smoke are so offensive to those who do.’ And I told them — first of all, you asked me. Secondly, why do people who smoke not realise they’re the offensive ones?”
She made it clear that makeup rooms and shared sets are not places to smoke — vape or conventional cigarettes. “On set, in makeup rooms, in rooms, you cannot smoke,” she said. Period.
Javed Akhtar? Irrelevant
Of course, the conversation couldn’t skip over Javed Akhtar’s infamous anti-Pakistan remarks, in which he said he’d rather go to hell than visit Pakistan. Bayat had thoughts on this, as do we all.
“I think people make these statements when they know they’ve lost their relevance,” she said. “He’s a classic case of Shah se zyada Shah ka wafadar — trying a bit too hard to prove his loyalty.”
While she acknowledged Pakistanis’ trademark hospitality, Bayat also had a word of advice: “I’d really like to request people in Lahore to not invite such people. Yes, we’re known for our hospitality, but in being a good host, don’t forget your dignity.”
She added, “Hatred is a negative emotion in every regard, it can’t give birth to anything positive. You can’t build anything from it, only destroy.”
Not the wicked churail of the west
Bayat also revisited the Churails controversy — remember the clip that went viral, completely out of context, and resulted in her being trolled relentlessly? “The story of Churails was very relevant to our society. These things happen here,” she said. “If we don’t address them, they’ll come back to bite us.”
In the said clip from the show, Bayat’s character Sherry spoke about the sexual favours she had to give in exchange for job promotions. The scene sparked a furore on X, then Twitter, with users claiming that such dialogues could “spread vulgarity” and demanding the show to be removed.
The Zee5 mini-series ended up becoming inaccessible to Pakistani viewers and then two weeks later, it was back up again.
Bayat believes the backlash she received wasn’t just about the clip — it was also political. “I’m very vocal about sexual violence and gender-based violence. I’ve worked closely with rape victims — the subject is very close to my heart,” she shared. “Even on set, if there’s a child around, I keep a watchful eye. So yes, maybe that irks people.”
The trolling hit her hard. “People dragged my parents into it, my upbringing, my family. That hurt me a lot. I’ve always promised myself that I’d carry myself in a way that my family never has to feel ashamed.”
But the hate had an unexpected outcome. “All that trolling ended up making the show even more popular. People who weren’t even planning on watching it…watched it. And they realised the hate was coming from a very specific, nefarious place.”
Would she take on another bold role? Absolutely — with one provision. “I’d still take up a show that talks about taboo topics, I just make sure it doesn’t glamorise an issue, it should raise it. And that’s what happened with Churails.”
