Interview with Mag4you.com

Mag4you.com: Please give us a brief introduction of yourself for our visitors.
Aftab Alam: I was born in Hyderabad and belong to the Memon community. After graduation I came to Karachi. In Karachi I have a friend by the name of Usman Memon. He used to see me sitting idle a lot of times so offered me to work for Memon language dramas since he himself was a renowned director. He gave me script of some play and I accepted it. In my very first performance I was appreciated so much that it inspired me to do more plays in future.
Then I started doing Urdu plays. I also did a stage play by the name of “bakra kiston per’ and was appreciated tremendously for that. On television my first play was “choti si duniya” which was a super duper hit. My character also became an instant hit. I played the role of a man named “Janoo German” who was needed to compete against a man who had come from abroad and spoke English well. Even today people remember my character in the serial, even though a lot of people do not even remember the name of the serial!

Mag4you.com: Having worked for TV and stage, have you ever thought for working for films?
A A: Not really. Actually we also have a business in Karachi and staying here I can concentrate on acting and business both. But if I consider movies, I will have to go to Lahore for that and that’s going to be pretty tough to leave everything here and go there. So I am not really interested in doing films, at least not now.

Mag4you.com: Do you think acting can be adopted as a profession?
A A: I think everything in this world is a play, even business. With out acting you cant sell anything in this world of today. In business also if you have hundreds of thousands of rupees but no proper presentation or play, you really cannot do anything. So you need to play and act in all fields of life. In fact after working for dramas, people oblige me even more because they recognize me.

Mag4you.com: What difficulties did you face when you adopted acting?
A A: The only difficulty I ever faced was that people don’t understand that like all other good and noble professions acting also needs to be respected. We actors also dement respect. They love to see actors on stage & TV and enjoy their performance but off screen talk bad about their profession. Like last year when I went for Hajj, people were somewhat surprised. And I was like, come on, cant I go for Hajj? So I think that’s not fair, and as such this is the only difficulty I felt.

Mag4you.com: Most of the characters you played were comedy, are you like that in real life as well?
A A: Actually I am not like that in real life, but most people I come across expect me to be like that. Like even when I came to the premises of yours', the staff started making cute humorous remarks and to which I also responded in a similar manner. In fact once what happened was that we were four people giving shoulder to a dead, and another man who was with me, at that instant asked me, which will be your next program, which was kind of odd for me. But I responded to him with a smile and told him. So even though I am not like that in real life, people expect me to be like that.

Mag4you.com: Why has no academy been made for those who want to learn acting?
A A: People in our country value money a lot. Like the projects you all have made at this Group, a lot of them are simply a social service. You all did not see the money involved in it or anything; you just did it for peoples welfare. Everyone is not like that. So if people make acting academies, they will obviously ask for fees. And in our country everyone wants to act, even those who cannot even afford a decent meal for himself for a day. So where will he pay for that academy from? That is why no proper academy has been formed as yet.

Mag4you.com: Nowadays so many channels have been introduced, like Indus Network, Geo, etc. which ultimately means PTV will have to face a lot of competition. Still PTV has shown very minimal improvement if any, why is that?
A A: Actually PTV employees get a fixed salary for the month whether they have done any work for the month or not. Therefore they know even if they do not perform, they will still get a good salary. On the other hand, as far as other channels are concerned, they pay the actors, directors, producers, etc on how much work they have done and how well they have done it. That’s the difference.

Mag4you.com: Private channels have separate department altogether for creativity, whereas PTV, it seems does not believe in creativity at all?
A A: There’s a certainly lot of creativity. In fact our identity is PTV only. If you go anywhere in the world, only channel people will know about would be PTV and also artists and dramas are also recognized through PTV, not GEO, INDUS, ARY, etc. Hence, PTV is the leader and all others are followers. But just like the way people like to see youngsters more than elders, same is the case in television channels. Also PTV has a strict censor policy unlike other channels.

Mag4you.com: If you were given a good offer from some foreign channel say Star Plus, would you go for it?
A A: Yes, why not. But only if the role is worthy of it and if it does not show any disrespect to Muslims of any kind. But anyways being offered a role in the first place is flattering; it just shows the capability of a person and his worthiness and demand amongst the audience and the producers.

Mag4you.com: There was a time when lots of Memoni Dramas were presented in theatre but now no more. Why?
A A: After the huge success of Memoni Dramas in Karachi, Urdu Dramas culture started. So you can say that Memoni Dramas were the trendsetters. There was a time when people used to collect tickets of Memoni Dramas so early. All these dramas happened to be house full. But due to increase in taxes and high demands by artists, organizers stepped back. No support by the Memon community in this regard also made things worst. Another reason may be change in viewer ship since viewers don’t want to see those well-cultured and well-mannered dramas on stage. So I think these were few of the reasons for decline of Memoni Dramas.

Mag4you.com: How many awards have you received so far?
A A: So many national and international awards have been awarded to me but the best award, which I was given, was a Gold Medal Few days back somebody suggested me to sell that Gold Medal but I refused because this is the most valuable award I have ever gotten.

Mag4you.com: Plz tell us about your future projects.?
A A: I am going to do a serial “jaisi karne waisi bharne” in the near future.

Mag4you.com: Where do you enjoy most while performing: Theatre or TV?
A A: These days artists enjoy most where more money is offered (laughingly). Well I enjoy most working with a good team. Wherever I am appreciated and acknowledged, I enjoy myself.

Mag4you.com: What do you say about the importance of education in your field?
A A: Nobody can deny the importance of education whatever field he is in. In my view primary education is like a foundation for a person and it is due to his primary teacher’s training that this person achieves successes in his life.

Mag4you.com: What do you think about the decline of our showbiz industry as compare to the Indian showbiz industry? What do you suggest for its improvement?
A A: Firstly, we have no shortage of talent in our country but the need of the hour is to treat our talent with proper exposure and promotion. The respect an artist gets is unlimited. The main reason for the decline of our showbiz industry is no support by the bigwigs and lack of marketing. Another reason as I have already mentioned is the lack of viewer ship of our dramas and films. When we go to perform in foreign countries, only half of the Pakistani population comes to see and appreciate us but on the other side if there is any Indian performance going on, their shows are always full. Sad part is that majority of Pakistanis are the regular viewers of those shows. Unless we give importance and due promotion to it, our showbiz industry will never flourish to the extent where Indian showbiz industry is. Their big stars like Amitabh Bachan and others work in different advertisements because the marketers know that people are the followers of these big stars and they surely would like to follow them. This way they are utilizing these stars for the promotion of their products and beside these stars get more and more respect and recognition amongst masses.

Mag4you.com: Any message for Mag4you.com visitors?
A A: Always pray to Allah for mercy. There were two people arrested for murder. One was innocent and other was the real killer. The innocent was praying for the justice whereas the killer was praying for mercy. The decision by judge was that the innocent was sentenced to death and the killer was freed. Innocent man had committed some sins in the past so Allah dealt with him with justice and gave the punishment for that sin this time while the killer was granted mercy by Allah. Moral of the story is that always pray to Allah for mercy because HE is Ghafoor rur Raheem.

Mag4you.com: Thank you for this interview
A A: Thanks