“I am sad that I didn’t shoot all of last year. I lost a whole year,” says Hina Khan, who had two releases — a film titled Hacked (2020) and the web show Damaged 2 (2020), and starred in two shorts, Smartphone and Wishlist but says they were shot in before the pandemic.

“I believe that I lost out on many opportunities. I couldn’t meet good people, attend social gatherings or network. Not meeting people, like we did earlier, makes a lot of difference. You don’t know who picks you for which project based on your connect with them. I lost out on a lot of learning experience as I didn’t work on new projects. I don’t have any project lined up in 2021 as yet. Yet, I consider myself one of the lucky ones as I had multiple projects release last year,” she shares, adding that while she also starred in a popular supernatural TV show and participated in a hit reality show, it was “stressful”.

“Every few days, we hear about actors and technicians testing positive, even ones shooting out of Mumbai. So, working on a set every day and meeting so many people is risky. I have been stepping out and working but the virus is always on my mind. I performed at an awards event recently and I was so nervous and petrified, with dancers picking me and dancing in a group. I stayed away from my parents for a couple of days as there is a lot of fear,” she divulges.

Khan is happy about the vaccine “out there” but knows it might be sometime before “we get it”. She says, “It is great news that a vaccine is available. But we will have to see how effective it is, what are the side effects, how long does it give us immunity for, and how will the authorities reach out to the population of our country. It won’t be easy. The authorities will have to work hard to be able reach everyone, because a vaccine isn’t the need of just our country but the whole world.”

She wants to urge people to remain vigilant and not drop their guard. “We have to continue to maintain all the safety protocols. Coronavirus is still around and sure things have opened up, but we have to do our part as well. We shouldn’t get lax at all,” she concludes.