Fahad Mustafa doesn’t give interviews; he was quick to say that he has nothing to say. Having said that he said a whole lot of interesting things in our 20-minute conversation.
It was just our luck that we saw Fahad walking across the airport lobby with an entourage of peers/colleagues in tow, waiting to board his flight to Dubai, which is exactly where we were headed too. We’re now all in Dubai for the Pakistan Super League opening ceremony, which is being hosted by Fahad. He sat with three other gentlemen on the table and as we introduced ourselves to him, all three immediately relocated to another table to make space for us. He probably gets this a lot, we pondered out loud to the star, to which he very calmly responded, “Yes I do.â€
Fahad spoke very calmly throughout our chit-chat over a cup of coffee and we were surprised to see that he speaks very slowly and in a very low voice. Perhaps he saves all the energy and dramatic flair for the stage and screen, where he has to put on a show. But Fahad told us that he is usually himself on stage for his show, Jeeto Pakistan, where he sometimes irritates the management by not sticking to the script. “There is no script. I don’t plan anything beforehand; I go with the flow. I think over-planning ruins things. Even right now I’m hosting the opening ceremony and I have no idea what I’m going to be doing there.â€
Perhaps structure and planning is needed though because the state of TV shows nowadays is abysmal. Many believe that game shows, such as Jeeto Pakistan, are dumbing people down. “Yaar, look at the audience we’re catering to, look at what people want nowadays. Start a KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) here and it will shut down soon because people won’t be able to answer questions. Phir what do we do? So we try to keep engaging people with fun and games in an attempt to entertain them.”
Does Mustafa believe that things need to change? “Yes, but look at it this way, it’s not just the responsibility of television to change things. We are not teachers or lecturers. If tomorrow I start preaching and lecturing, nobody will listen. Also, you aren’t always on television to teach something. People turn the TV on for a few hours and in that time they just want to have fun. People enjoy watching Sunny Leone so if nothing, at least what I’m doing is better than her.”
This was just the beginning of an interesting conversation in which he spoke about his upcoming films, the fact that his films sink or swim because of him (and the female co-star doesn’t really figure), the fact that Pakistan has no film directors and more. Once it seemed that Fahad Mustafa had become comfortable conversing with us, we addressed something that many people often say about the actor. Is he arrogant? “Yes, I am arrogant,” he answered matter-of factly. And the conversation became a whole lot more interesting from that point on. Mustafa was surprisingly honest and extremely insightful. Watch this space to see what other explosive things he told us!
