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that I took up were of very strong
characters. At that point, there was a
lot of range and potential for
performance margin. With films now,
although there is an influence of
Bollywood cinema to some extent,
but the direction of commercial
cinema with movies such as Na
Maloom Afraad and Wrong No. is
allowing female characters to be
projected in a more progressive light.
Although, they are not layered as a
serious genre of the film, but I think
these are essential characters of
women and most importantly how
they are projected on TV.
I like the direction it’s going in there’s so much room and there’s so
much more we have to do to explore
not just for women but also for male
roles. There’s too much left to be
done.
What roles are intriguing you and do
you hope to sign on for next?
There is a wide range of roles that I
would like to take up, there isn’t any
particular one. All roles that have a
margin of performance that I perhaps
haven’t explored before are always
challenging and intriguing such as
characters that speak different
dialects or portraying lives of people
belonging to unconventional places.
A genre I have yet to dive in is
comedy. Not necessarily slapstick but
situational or black humour or
just an outright romantic
s
If you look at Seedlings, it was the
first project for the producer and
director of the film. Similarly, Armaan
was the first for Tarang films and 021
was the first for One Motion Filmseveryone is still exploring. For most of
us, we are thrilled that cinema has
finally revived. For me, I hadn’t done
film, so all these characters were a
new challenge that I took on. It was
also as simple as if I liked the team
and we understood each other and
the script gripped my attention, it was
good enough for me to go ahead and
give it a chance. To be honest, we
don’t really have much to lose.
How do you find the massive take-off
the industry has taken? Particularly
roles for women?
It is very reassuring, exciting and
amazing! In a handful of years, we
have managed to come exceptionally
far. As an actor, I feel blessed to have
started my career when there was lull
in TV productions but soon after
channels were privatised a lot of
content started flowing in and the
industry picked pace. Now in our
career lifespan, we are experiencing
similar take-off with the film industry.
We are lucky to be working at a time
like this because we are getting
opportunities that are bound to be
the first of their kind for Pakistan.
When it comes to roles for women,
I remember when I started off there
were very meaty films. All the roles