When Asim Abbasi’s Churails released in 2020, it wasn’t appreciated by members of Pakistan’s entertainment fraternity, according to Sarwat Gilani, one of the leads in the show.

“No one in my industry celebrated the success of Churails,” Gilani told a surprised Faizan Syed in his podcast Digitales. “They can’t handle someone else’s success, ‘they were successful, I wasn’t,’ they’ll rot [with jealousy].”parThe actress added that posting on social media, putting up Instagram stories, isn’t celebrating, that’s just something managers ask industry professionals to do. She said she had stopped calling herself a celebrity because celebrities need to be celebrated.

Gilani also lamented the way women are portrayed in Pakistani dramas, saying, “How does [the girl] keep falling for such a man, ‘This hero hits me [but] he’s the crown atop my head.’ For God’s sake, he’s hitting you, cursing at you, disrespecting your parents.”parWhen Syed asked what other way there was to show the adversity women face in their lives, Gilani said you don’t necessarily have to show a woman in a state of oppression and misery, you can instead show “what she achieved after overcoming her hurdles”. She said the way to inspire a nation was by “telling your own stories”.