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Namra Shahid has never been shy about expressing her admiration for her fellow actors, and in a recent interview, she spoke with particular warmth about the woman she credits as both her idol and her most important mentor, Saba Qamar.
Speaking to host Dino Ali, Namra revealed that Saba has been her favourite actor from the very beginning of her career, and that she had actively manifested the opportunity to work alongside her. When that opportunity finally came in the form of the hit drama Muamma, Namra said she simply could not pass it up, even though the role being offered was that of a maid, a character several other well-regarded actors had reportedly turned down.
“The role was of a maid, and nobody wanted to play it. They approached many brilliant actors, but they declined for two reasons: first, because the character was a maid, and second, because they felt Saba would outshine the role,” she explained. For Namra, neither concern was a deterrent. The chance to work with someone she had studied and admired for years was reason enough to say yes.
She went on to reveal just how seriously she had invested in that admiration, describing nights spent watching Saba’s dramas until three in the morning, not to copy her but to understand what made her performances so compelling. “I wasn’t copying her. I was simply inspired by her,” she said, drawing a careful and important distinction between imitation and genuine learning.
The most memorable detail from Namra’s account came from her description of their first shoot together on Muamma. During a particularly emotional scene in which Saba was explaining her character’s motivations, Namra found herself so completely absorbed in the performance that she stopped acting and simply stared. The director called cut, and Namra had to explain that she had been so mesmerised she had forgotten she was supposed to be in the scene herself.
It is the kind of anecdote that reveals something true about what it means to admire someone deeply, not as a star to be celebrated from a distance, but as an artist whose craft is so compelling it can pull you out of your own work and into theirs.
Namra noted that while Saba was once her idol from afar, the two are now close friends, a relationship that emerged naturally from the shared experience of making Muamma together. For Namra, the journey from fan to friend to colleague is itself a kind of answer to the question of what genuine admiration, combined with hard work and patience, can eventually become.

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