Actor Anayah Shahid praised colleague Sajal Ali for supporting her during her debut in Zanjeerain, revealing that she had always wanted to begin her career with a negative role.

In an interview, Anayah discussed her acting debut and recalled how Sajal helped her during the process. “I love Sajal, so when I found out she was in the project, I had to do it. I had such a good experience. She was like an elder sister to me,” the actor shared.

She added, “I did not know how many things were done, so she used to come to my room and tell me how to deal with things and to go to her if I had any problems.”

Anayah also revealed that she had always wanted to make her debut with a negative role, saying that positive characters did not offer enough room to showcase an actor’s talent. “I like doing negative characters because I feel positive roles are very flat and there is no margin to perform. As a newcomer, I wanted to start with a negative character,” she said.

Recalling her audition for Zanjeerain, Anayah said, “I begged them to let me audition for that character. At first, they were not into it because it would be difficult for me to manage dates with another project. I had to convince them because I really wanted to do this character and found it very interesting.” She added, “I got a call after two days that I had got the role.”

Discussing her role as Shireen in the show, Anayah explained that the character attracted significant backlash, to the point that she had to put up a post asking audiences to distinguish between her character and her real self.

“I got a lot of hate for the character because people’s personal emotions were getting attached. I used to get a lot of bad, lengthy paragraphs in my messages telling me that I had ruined a girl’s home and was not raised well,” the actor shared.

She noted, “I had to put up an Instagram post emphasising that my character was part of a script and that if viewers had any issues, they should discuss them with the writer. I am just an employee of the script.”

Recalling a particular interaction with fans, Anayah said she often met older women and children who approached her and called her Shireen. However, she said she appreciated being recognised by her real name. “Whoever meets me always says, ‘Oh, you are Shireen.’ One girl came and asked if I was Anayah Shahid, which was surprising to me. Someone knew my real identity, and I liked that much more,” the actor said.

Sharing how her career began on social media, where she used to role-play different characters, she shared that her family was initially against the idea of her pursuing acting. The actor noted, however, that they had started warming up to it.

As of now, Anayah has not appeared in any other projects other than Zanjeerain, although the actor has hinted that she is working on upcoming projects.