Her Inspiration
Marina’s inspiration for work stems from the confidence her parents instilled in her from an early age. Then the man who got me into television, Shehzad Khalil — “I definitely owe him everything in relation to media. And also my husband, who just took it from where Shahzad Khalil left off and has encouraged me in everything that I wanted to do. That has been the beauty of our marriage, for he doesn’t stop me and I don’t stop him and it has worked out perfect.”

Reminiscing about the Past
Marina has come a long way in her career. What she misses is professionalism because when she started there was a slight decline but there were still some good producers and directors. “The reason I say that is because when they talked about the time spent before us, it seemed far more professional than what we were doing. Television was not a glamorous medium, instead if glamour was required it was portrayed, but if the subject matter did not require glamour, there wasn’t any. We used to run away from make-up, changing clothes and would have been happy to do the whole play in one outfit, if possible! What mattered then was the content.”

The Morning Show Experience
When ARY approached me to do the morning show, my first concern was, ‘What’s wrong with Nadia?’ I didn’t know at that time that she had jumped ship and gone to Geo. To make Marina Mornings different, I have introduced a challenge for Pakistani women to adopt a healthy life plan and I am including myself to it and losing weight as well.”

Playing with the Fat Cat
With Fat Cat Productions she has been busy catching up with work and has aired Baji Dixit. Another drama Chothi ka Jora will be concluding soon.

Her Future Plans
Her future plans include two years of the morning show as well as the weight loss challenge that she has embarked on. She is also planning a book in Urdu in regard to this and would love to direct in between as well.

The Icing on the Cake
Marina feels that for people who are in a profession, they have to love what they do. “Your life will pass you by and you will end up being miserable because you’re stuck in a rut. It’s always better to do something you like, even if it’s a struggle initially. We, as a nation, don’t have enough education and we don’t respect people and their work, no matter how big or small. Changing our attitude is the only way to progress.”