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Laila Zubariy  I finally met Laila Zubariy. My first appointment was cancelled due to a small misunderstanding. The second was blown away by 60 kilometer per-hour winds. At this point it seemed that I would never be chosen to meet a person of her cadre. But I did not lose hope.
Finally, I was able to break into her home successfully, except for that little brawl with a cute, but, hardly cuddly little doggy who kept rushing up to my car whenever I entered or left her street.
Eventually, there I was in her drawing room, shaking and sweating. I was happy to wait fifteen minutes while Laila was busy elsewhere, to catch my breath and enjoy the essence of that beautiful drawing room, which reflected the personalities of its inhabitants.
First Laila’s husband entered the room and shook my hand. He disappeared, and a few minutes latter Laila swept in wearing light green cotton lawn or whatever it was (I am not good at these things). Anyway, she looked great in that outfit.
So I took my notebook and asked my first question, a rather worn out one:
How did you get into showbiz?
Well, back in Quetta in 1985, producer Kazim Pasha, who was actually looking for a child star, offered me a role in his new play, Aabroo. In those days Quetta station suffered from a scarcity of female talents. I was a housewife and had no time for acting. I promised to act in just one play, and he promised not to offer me another role.
The play was a success, and everybody liked it. Soon Ghufran approached me with a proposal to act in his upcoming play Zindagi Ke Mailey. When I told him what I had told Kazim Pasha, he said, that was Kazim Pasha, not me. My husband urged me to work, and so here I am, an actress sitting in front of you.
There is a general impression that the environment in Quetta is insecure for female talent. Is that true? Do you feel the presence of any barriers?
No, certainly not. I have never gotten greater respect than at Quetta centre. Everyone is helpful, and I faced no opposition from my family, as my husband was the first person who encouraged me to act. In fact, he was keen to see me on the television screen.
Your most popular characters are all serious. When will you try your luck at comedy?
I tried to change that impression. I did a comedy play from Islamabad centre called Guddy-Guddy, but it was not successful. May be the script or the direction wasn’t good, or may be I am not fit for such roles. But a good script and sound direction help to dispel such impressions.
How do you view acting as a profession?
Quite unreasonable! Even an average person wanting to pursue this career will be unable to afford to buy clothes for his children from the meager pay he gets.
Do you ever feel that becoming an actress was a mistake?
Not often. When you get so much recognition and make heads turn, you feel proud. But when you have to face slogans, hooting and cranks calls from the public, then you sometimes wish you had a private life of your own. Everyone thinks an actor is pubic property.
When you’re walking down the street, people think nothing of stopping you to demand an autograph. I love going to the Murree Hills, but there, you can hardly walk a foot without signing a thousand autographs. It’s quite irritating.
What happens when you have to face hooting and your husband is with you?
He’s very cool in these situations. It’s the general psychology of the Pakistani people to express their affection for celebrities in this matter, so you try not to mind it.
How do you feel about private production?
I’ve done just one long play. It’s hard to work in an environment where you don’t have the basic facilities. They have to arrange locations in private homes. This slows the work down, because you don’t want to disturb the owners.
Would you like your children to follow you in this profession?
I wouldn’t force anything on them. It’s their decision to make. But both my daughters have done some plays.
My younger daughter, Tania, won a PTV award in 1986 for Zanjeer and my other daughter worked in Kohsish, which ran for a year.
It often happens that when a woman with a beautiful face appears on TV, she moves into films. Has anything like this happened to you?
Oh, yes. Many film producers have knocked at many doors, but I don’t have the temperament for films. And I don’t think anybody in my family would like to see me jumping and hopping in the fields behind a man, the age of my grandpa, or killing thousands of men single-handed.
What do you do in your spare time?
I like to read or listen to music, depending on my mood. I like light or classical music, but I don’t mind jazz either. Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Richard Marx are my favorites.
In books, I read Sydney Sheldon and such trash in English, and Mushtaq Ahmed Yousafi because he has a great sense of humor. His pun is a double-edged sword.Thus ended the interview I worked so hard to get. Strangely enough, the public is so well-informed that most of what she told me I had already heard from friends and colleagues, right down to the names of her children and servants. So I guess Laila’s point about an actor being public property is correct.
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