Actor Yasir Hussain slammed for making transgender joke

'Karachi Se Lahore' star will be portraying the role of a female in upcoming telefilm 'Help Me Durdana'

Local star Yasir Hussain received much praise for his part in Naach Na Janay. And the actor didn't lose any time before taking up another job.  The Karachi Se Lahore actor has bagged a role in an upcoming tele-film titled Help Me Durdana. Does that ring a bell? We're sure it does. Probably the most famous dialogue from Mehwish Hayat and Humayun Saeed's hit film Punjab Nahi Jaungi - is now being turned into a film.

Judging from pictures shared on social media, the forthcoming venture features Ushna Shah and Mehmood Aslam among others. It has been helmed by Aabis Raza while actor Fahad Mustafa is the producer.

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ YASIR HUSSAIN

However, Yasir isn't playing any old role in the film. He will be portraying a female. The star shared pictures of himself in hair and makeup for the role on Instagram, with a caption that read, "Durdana jee. Help me Durdana... coming soon" and "Durdana jee aap ki Eid saja degi (Durdana will adorn your Eid)."

Fellow actor Iqra Aziz commented on one of the posts, expressing her pride, "So proud of you for choosing characters which are so out of the box for male leads with such confidence. Much power to you my boy. Best of luck team."

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ YASIR HUSSAIN

Although the Baandi actor received much love for his bold decision, there was one user (who believed Yasir was playing a trans character) had a very valid question, "Why don't you guys hire ACTUAL transgenders?" Now, there were two ways to go about this, either respond sensibly or mock the person. Can you guess which route Yasir took? The latter.

"Matlab aap ko job chahiye? (Do you want the job?)" Let's give him the benefit of the doubt: Maybe he was being funny (or trying to) but it still doesn't make it okay. Numerous users have spoken up regarding his "transphobic" jokes.

PHOTO: SCREENGRAB

"Waiting for the day when Pakistani men will grow up," wrote one while another stated, "This guy is such a loose cannon. Not the first time he’s said something inappropriate." But, they knew that the comment didn't faze him, "What makes me sad is people like him are never sorry." Some suggested that people protest in order to get him off the project completely, "Guys, is there any way we can create enough noise and get him off the cast?"

PHOTO: SCREENGRAB

Others looked back at the time he made yet another inappropriate joke regarding child molestation."Few years ago, he cracked a joke about child molestation where he said “itna khoobsurat child molester, kash mein bhi bacha hota (such a beautiful child molester, I wish I was a kid)”, when Ahsan Khan received his award for Udaari. Yasir Hussain is so problematic, why does he get away with it every time?"

https://twitter.com/laylaaff/status/1122184984763170817

https://twitter.com/haseemuzzaman/status/1122324175148941312

That degenerate, #YasirHussain should've been cancelled when he made that sick joke about child molestation at a freaking award show.

— hibz don't lie (@Yetanothermind2) April 27, 2019

https://twitter.com/aspirati0/status/1122267673268752386

https://twitter.com/Hafsa_Khawaja/status/1122203425293438979

I think people are missing a point here: nobody has a problem with #YasirHussain playing a female character, however, when he was asked about playing a trans he could have easily refuted the claim and moved on BUT noooo he makes it a point to prove that he's ignorant
Smh

— Ayesha says Free Palestine (@ayeshaghaffar) April 28, 2019

By mocking the already marginalised community, you're normalizing trans jokes. #YasirHussain is playing a FEMALE character and if some people decided to leave insensitive comments, he could have shown some character and given them a shut up call. Way to use your position of power

— Ayesha says Free Palestine (@ayeshaghaffar) April 28, 2019

I don't even want to argue with people who think that 'it's bad humour and not insensitive' or 'it's not a big deal' because if you don't see a problem with jokes about oppressed people then you're part of the problem. #YasirHussain

— Ayesha says Free Palestine (@ayeshaghaffar) April 28, 2019

Think before you say something #yasirhussain i never liked his humour ! https://t.co/tpkBEkxIU9

— Neha✨ #StandwithPalestine🇵🇸 #Freepalestine🇵🇸 (@naina_khn) April 28, 2019

Since then, Yasir has disabled the comments on his Instagram post. Surprise surprise.



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