Finding feet in films

The actor has a few Bollywood films lined up and will be heading to India shortly to sign the deals

KARACHI:

Fahad Mustafa’s life motto ensures that he does not succumb to the curse of mediocrity. The actor has made a living out of experimentation and versatility by juggling various roles and proving his multi-faceted persona time and again.

He has gone from being a television actor to a morning  host and game show personality to becoming a film actor, all within the span of a few months. The actor recently spoke to The Express Tribune about the reason behind his varied career trajectory.

“It is important to keep on experimenting as an actor otherwise, if I wanted to play one sort of role, I would have gone for a more stable 9 to 5 job rather than become an actor,” said the Na Maloom Afraad star.

He talked about his decision behind switching mediums despite being an accomplished television actor and personality stating, “I have this inherent problem that I am not very sensible in life. I hosted a morning show when everyone told me not to and it worked out brilliantly. Then, I did Jeeto Pakistan when people warned me against it and it eventually became the number one game show.”



The actor further added that this decision not only bore fruit for him financially but also rejuvenated his career as an actor. Time away from the sets of TV dramas allowed him to enjoy and appreciate his work even more so.

He feels strongly about reviving the film industry. “The idea is to help our [film] industry grow and hopefully reach a point when there will be at least 10-12 major film releases per year and hopefully, that will include at least two of my films. The growth of our film industry should not mean the end for our drama industry,” said the star.

Mustafa, who made his film debut with Na Maloom Afraad, said that his decision to do less TV dramas helped him “save” his skills for film.

“Coming less on TV as an actor helped me save my skills as an actor as constantly appearing on dramas would’ve resulted in the exhaustion of my skill set,” remarked Mustafa.



The major reason why his transition from television to film went smooth was because, in his opinion, acting in a medium like television is tougher in comparison to film. “In film, the concentration is generally more as you have lesser shots. Whereas in a TV drama you have to repeat the action countless times for different scenes which eventually results in a decline in the quality of performance.”

Mustafa feels he is very “privileged” as a film actor as at the start of his career he got the opportunity to act in two completely different films such as the entertainer Na Maloom Afraad and the character driven Mah-e-Meer.

“Mah-e-Meer is a very different film and is basically a treat for me as an actor. I felt honoured that Sarmad Sehbai chose me in particular for the part,” he told The Express Tribune.

Apart from his work as an actor, Mustafa is all set to turn producer for a film being made under his production banner. The star will also be starring in an upcoming biopic Mah-e-Meer a romantic-comedy, directed by Anjum Shahzad.



Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2014.

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