Pardes is a highly viewed drama that is currently airing on ARY Digital. An emotional and heart wrenching story about a household where the man of the house has to leave his family and travel abroad to make money, without realising how drastically his absence may affect the life his little daughter. A Marina Khan directorial, Pardes stars big names like Sarmad Khoosat, Bushra Ansari, Atiqa Odho, Mohammed Ahmed as well as Shaista Lodhi, Affan Waheed, Gohar Rasheed, Dur-e-Fishan amongst others.
Aamna Isani and Hassan Choudary of Something Haute went onto the set of Pardes to cover some behind-the-scene madness and interviewed those involved in the project. In a conversation with Aamna Isani, Gohar Rasheed, who plays Asim, a character we love to hate in the drama, shared his experience of playing negative roles.
Gohar Rasheed with Aamna Isani
“I haven’t done many positive characters; Ishqiya and Raaz-e-Ulfat are the two exceptions and even very recent ones. I have been type-cast in negative roles so much that I feel I have got trained in it and have adapted it somehow, not in real life at all,” he said laughing, “Now, I know the exact beats to follow so it is easier for me as compared to playing a positive role.”
Is the arc of a negative character always defined in the script or you have mastered it yourself?
“Unfortunately, roles are not usually pre-defined to this extent in scripts, at least not the ones I have done. Luckily, I am fortunate to work with some intelligent directors like Marina Khan, Nadeem Baig, Bilal Lashari, Haseeb Hasan, Badar Mehmood and others who know how to create an arc. Like Asim is not written this way that he comes across as he is under the influence of his wife, however, Marina asked me to do so and then I shared my input and experience as well. And then after a creative talk, we defined the arc.”
Gohar thinks that negativity and misery sells and everyone is running behind TRPs so they don’t shy away from feeding viewers physical abuse.
“I can say this on behalf of the acting fraternity that all the actors who are working right now are not inspired by anything. There is not even any aspiration; it’s just that ‘okay, this looks a little bit different’ so let’s just do this. In fact, it is not very motivational for an actor. My role as Asim is pretty much the same to what I did as Shoukat in Digest Writer.”
What made you sign Pardes?
“Brutally speaking, when Nadeem told me Marina Khan is directing it, I said yes! I love Marina to bits and I didn’t even ask what my role is, what the story is; I was willing to do it even I was in the passing. And now that we are shooting, I got to learn so much from her. She is an amazing human being as well as an amazing director,” he said adding, “After Rangreza, I have started working for the process, not the end result because it is not in our control.”
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