Winner of this year's META Best Actress Award, Ahlam Khan looks back at her decade-long career in theatre and her current prolific phase as an actor

When you watch her in a play she comes across as a fragile, almost ethereal being, with a firm stage presence. Off stage, occupying an entire bench at Prithvi Caf ufffd, she looks you in the eye while answering every question to the point. A mischievous streak comes across, once in a while, but mostly, she is in command of her space. Very few actors exhibit an air of confidence like her.


Ahlam Khan at her home in Bandra. Pic/ sayed sameer abedi

To most people, Ahlam Khan is better known as the late Amjad Khan's daughter. Theatre has witnessed many celebrity sons and daughters on stage but less than a handful who refrain from mentioning their lineage. Throughout our interaction, not once does Ahlam drop her father's name. Even the recently won META Best Actress Award barely makes it into our conversation. Instead, the prolific actress takes us on a journey of her twelve-year-long career in theatre.

Starting off with experimental productions under playwright and director Ramu Ramanathan and the group Not Quite There, Ahlam has, over the years, worked with young and old directors ufffd Makarand Deshpande, Manoj Shah, Denzil Smith, Akarsh Khurana, Purva Naresh, Gopal Tiwari and others ufffd in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu plays. "I want to do a Marathi play next," she quickly adds.