The Oscar lady has a camp set up wherein a black and white photograph hangs in one corner while the other frame has minimal text, ‘hungami halaat main hum sab aik hain’. “We judge others too soon, without knowing the complete picture,” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the two-time Academy Award winner lets me in on the monochrome photograph which only shows the arms of a floral-clad woman.

When in her office, the eyes cannot be at rest. With two gold-plated britannium statuettes resting atop a wooden cabinet, the visual lens can certainly not be at ease. How often does one get to witness the magnanimity of the 14-inch tall Oscar statuette?

Sharmeen maps out herself as a storyteller. “At my heart and core I am a Pakistani. When I travel, I represent my country, be it the red carpet at the Oscars or the World Economic Forum, I wear Pakistan on my sleeve,” says the leading lady who started out as a journalist and always wanted to venture into the world of films. Inspiration for her came from reading the nation’s history. “One thing I learned was that if you don’t like something, you should fight for it, rectify it, speak the truth and that is what I do every day in the work that I do,” says the film-maker who doesn’t really want everyone to agree with what she does but that is not what stops her from taking up projects that thwart her efforts. “Our forefathers didn’t leave the comforts of their homes and families to start a country that would end up 70 years later in such a position and the onus is on my generation to do whatever they can, be it through entertainment, documentaries, news, or the accountability to ask those questions.”

When she was growing up, a reflection of herself is what she could see in programmes like Uncle Sargam, Ainak Wala Jin and in Sohail Rana’s songs for children. “There was always time to look at things and hear people who spoke your language or live in a world like you,” Sharmeen talks about how children nowadays don’t get to witness a mirror image of themselves on screen. “They (kids) have Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck which is fantastic, which I also had, but then they have stuff which is dubbed, either Hindi or Chinese cartoons, but they aren’t from this soil, it’s not ours!”

The animator always wanted to generate something which was identifiable for the children. “I wanted to create something which when the children view, the streets that they walk, the buses they come across, the noise and the hustle bustle of the every day life, that is what I wanted to create and 3 Bahadur is what resulted,” and the doldrums that followed by the denizens were “who is going to watch an animated Pakistani film in cinema? But the audiences came, and they came, and came in droves,” the steadfast lady talks about how the public reacted to her first animated venture which turned out to be the highest grossing animated film beating Rio 2’s record in Pakistan.

And that gave birth to the ‘3 Bahadur Aunty’. “If I were asked what’s my most endearing project, than I would say this one for its very special. There are many times at airports where a father would be telling his kids that I made that film. There’s nothing like creating something for children; when they grow up and look at their childhood, they will see Amna, Saadi, Kamil, Baba Balaam, Dino Chacha. It’s more special than anything I have ever done,” the lady expresses, who is now seen as an inspiration for many parents who want their kids to follow her steed.

From her name being called out as the winner for Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 2012 for Saving Face and then again in 2016 winning the title for A Girl in The River, for Sharmeen the journey has been very long. “I started making films in 2002 when I won my first Oscar. It was the 10th year of making films,” she recalls the time when qualifying for the Academy Awards was a distant thought. “The most incredible thing is that millions of people around the world watch it, so when I won the award, Pakistanis living in Australia, UK, USA, Canada and the home country too, watched it. They were shocked that a fellow citizen could get up there and win,” says the public speaker who visits various schools, colleges around the world and members of the Pakistani diaspora want her to meet their sons and daughters and get into the field of arts. “It’s not about me standing up on that platform and winning, but me, winning represents that its possible to shatter that glass ceiling making it possible to get up there and win!”

Sharmeen is a woman who raises issues that are a stain on our national consciousness and the repercussions that follow don’t stop her from highlighting more of them. “I take the negativity in a very positive sense because when you are successful, there will always be people who will push back and tell you not to talk about such issues,” the documentary maker talks about how she keeps her faith strong. “I feel my work is having an impact because if it was otherwise, people wouldn’t be wasting their time trying to get online and being vocal about my work. But obviously when I’m pushing buttons, talking about acid violence, honour killings, these aren’t issues which I have invented,” Sharmeen speaks blatantly about the ground reality of the country. And certainly the groundwork initiated by her has initiated a spark on a national level.

“When I won this year, I was told by a TV producer that he has never done a primetime show on honour killings, but my film made this producer talk about the subject instead of a routine political show at 8 or 9pm,” the agenda-driven Sharmeen shares. “My work forces people to confront issues, and in this country confronting issues is a catch 22 situation. If you confront issues, and if you’re successful in doing so, the public thinks it’s a conspiracy,” and with square shoulders she expresses, “my work has made the prime minister watch a film followed by the government to seriously push forward a bill,” and these are what are wins for her.

To give a voice to all the unheard individuals is what Sharmeen always wanted to do. And the Oscars more than fulfilled that vision of hers. “To me the Academy Awards are very special because the work is appreciated on a global level, but apart from that, the Oscars have enabled me to amplify the voices of other people and given me the ability to go into other fields – like animation is a new genre,” she talks about the sequel – 3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam that is now being shown in cinemas.

From idolising Jahangir Khan for his perseverance to Edhi’s selfless efforts for people of any caste or colour, Sharmeen gets inspiration from the people who are “educating kids, fighting the system, pushing the envelope every day, all those who risk their lives to bring about change in this country are those who really inspire me.”

Powering kids with superpowers in the flick, when asked if Sharmeen had superpowers “it would be to instill compassion in people. I wish I could make people more compassionate towards others. We are a very decisive society. Instead of looking at that diversity as negative, I wish I could instill compassion so they could see the diversity as a strength of this nation,” and the movie-maker’s second wall hanging is a constant reminder of how in catastrophic times alone do we unite.