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We have a lot of talented people in the industry. Problem is that talent is taking a backseat to superficial casting.
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Have you been watching television lately? There is a throng of good looking people all over that thing. When did that start?
All these beautiful people wearing designer clothing, modeling as common Pakistanis on TV. Well, acting, but let’s not get bogged down in minutiae.
This discovery hits you a little harder if you have not been watching TV regularly. Not to say there weren’t pretty people on TV before. Perhaps, these people are nowadays more visible because you can’t help but look past the beauty, probably because they bring the acting range of a ripe kinnow.
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If you think about all the TV shows that came about in the past five years, who can you pinpoint as incredibly talented? Stipulation: you cannot name anyone who has been in this industry for over 10 years.
“Hamza Ali Abbasi!” you scream, not realising that I cannot hear you over the internet. Fine, I give you Hamza Ali Abbasi, I’ll even accept Hasan Ahmed (watch his “sar dard” Disprin ad and you’ll see what I mean), who else?
Who else can you think of who consistently delivers convincing performances on TV over and over again?
It’s not that we don’t have talented people in our industry today, the problem is that talent is taking a backseat to superficial casting. The older entertainers, writers and directors are from an era with different priorities and they are still outshining ripe kinnows.
To be fair, this lack of consistently delivering stellar performances is not limited to actors; we blame them because they are the first things we see. There are directors who are not doing their scripts justice; there are writers who can’t write coherent characters.
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For reasons we will explore in just one paragraph; think about the following names and think of an equivalent in the current crop of people. Such as the writing of Haseena Moin – the classic Dhoop Kinaray – to the recent Shayad Ke Bahaar Aaye. Then, we have the always-consistent direction of Anwar Maqsood who sheds a light on sensitive subjects with incredible satire. We see stellar performances from Shehnaz Sheikh, Marina Khan, Rahat Kazmi, Shakeel, even today at times; the late Moin Akhtar was outclassing everyone on TV in a single 30-minute show.
Even the seemingly less accomplished Faisal Qureshi took the time out to alter his appearance for his role in Bashar Momin, Sania Saeed portrays realistic characters, each different from the other. Take Firdous Jamal and Saba Hameed in comparison to the rest of the cast in Pyare Afazal and you can see the clear difference in quality of work from the get-go.
The drama Teesra Kinara was an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead. This was a consistent theme with Rahat and Saira Kazmi’s projects, as opposed to modern dramas inspired by that one time the writer saw a woman crying and wrote Humsafar around it.
All this can be traced back to when PTV required personnel to have appropriate qualifications for being on TV, there were courses and certifications that needed to be carried out before someone was handed a show. This criterion was relaxed around the Zia era (yes, unfortunately we have to go there for a second). After that, under qualified people became part of the process and it hasn’t been able to fully recover ever since.
Additionally, there is more money in advertising than there is on TV and our film industry is not nearly big enough give budding talent something to aspire to. So, they invariably turn to ads.
Advertising is a superficial industry. Because let’s face it, we’re not going to buy beauty soaps because a very talented actor convinced us to. We’re going to do it because we think we might look like the gorgeous people who are using the aforementioned toiletries.
Also read: A commercial break
If you were about to start a project, would you take your chances with someone who has something published or someone who just seems talented? I’d go with the former. Similarly, writers emerge from Urdu digests where sob stories are hot property and anyone with money can become a producer. Notice how specific experience in TV production was not a factor in all three categories? That’s why newer people are falling behind.
Not to say there aren’t talented individuals out there today, there is some incredible direction from budding talents like of Jawad Shaikh (Islamabad), acting capabilities from Shah Fahad (Lahore), and just so many talented writers, I don’t even know where to begin. All of their work, however, is undermined by the need to put the aforementioned “up and comers” (pretty people) on TV.
This is why professional models get dolled up when portraying roles where their makeup alone could foot the monthly rations for the social class they are portraying. They have reputations as models to protect. Writers will not sway from their Urdu digest roots because they can’t risk alienating their core demographic for a drama.
This does not come with a one-size-fits-all solution unfortunately.
In some cases, it is just a budgeting issue. In other cases, it is a marketing issue (wrong audience, wrong time, wrong channel).
Sometimes, the powers that be are working under the assumption that since international TV is full of pretty people who are also talented, we should invest in pretty for now, and talent can wait.
One hopes that this small diversion does not deter the talented actors from returning, because once the last of our talented crop fade away, we are going to be in the very unsafe hands of mostly untalented people. That is a scary thought.
Adi Abdurab has written a Peabody Award winning and Emmy Nominated TV series. He has been lecturing for 6 years and is also a life skills trainer. He writes frequently on entertainment, technology and education.
Find him on Twitter @abdurab
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