- Mehwish Hayat and Lena Khan makes her debut in Hollywood with Ms. Marvel.
- Hayat went on Instagram to tell her fans about the news.
- So proud to have been made a patron of UK Muslim Film.
After making her debut in Hollywood with Ms. Marvel, Mehwish Hayat and Lena Khan, the director of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, have been named as the first patrons of charity UK Muslim Film (UKMF). UKMF works to change people’s views by helping underrepresented talent and voices on and off screen and giving advice on how to represent Muslims in a way that is true to their lives.
Thursday, Hayat went on Instagram to tell her fans about the news. “So proud to have been made a patron of UK Muslim Film. The first step towards ‘changing the script’,” she wrote.
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The actor who is known for movies like “Actor in Law,” “Chhalawa,” and “London, Nahi Jaunga,” and who has talked a lot about human rights and how Muslims are shown in the mainstream media. In an interview with Variety, the actor said, “I have been working hard for the past few years to bring attention to how Muslims are shown on screen. Misrepresentation has caused us a lot of harm, and I believe it has contributed to the rise of Islamophobia.”
The actor is excited to work with the industry through UKMF to make sure that “Muslims are portrayed on screen in a fair, if not positive, way.”
Mehwish further added, “It is equally incumbent on us as Muslims to be telling our own stories. I am excited that UKMF will be supporting emerging Muslim talent and helping them get their work to larger audiences.”
The site says that on August 13 in Edgbaston, UK, there will be a pop-up movie theatre to honour Khan’s work as the director of the Disney original Flora & Ulysses.
“Representation in films and television literally changes our cultural landscape — for better or worse. It impacts policy, how we see people, how we operate with each other. And it’s not that hard to do. I hope we can continue to expand the scope and quality of how our fellow humans are seen on screen, and enjoy the ride and the stories along the way,” Khan told variety.
Sajid Varda, who started UKMF and will soon start the first Muslim International Film Festival, worked closely with Khan on The Tiger Hunter and acted in it with Danny Pudi, Jon Heder, Rizwan Manji, Iqbal Theba, Karen David, Samuel Page of The Bold Type, and Kevin Pollak.
Varda also told the publication that they have a lot of work to do to change how the media portrays Muslims. With Hayat and Khan joining the UKMF team, they hope that together they can “change the script.”
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