Dure Fishan Saleem, Affan Waheed talk beginnings, breakups

Dure Fishan and Affan Waheed, who recently starred together in Pardes, made an appearance on Time Out with Ahsan Khan. They spoke about their time together working in the showbiz industry, their personal lives, and some television gossip.

The show was easy-going and full of friendly banter given that Khan and Waheed share a friendship of over 20 years. The comfort was evident and added a fun warm touch to the evening. In one of the segments, Saleem shared that Waheed is a great chef and cooks the best Pulao to which the host and friend actor teased Waheed on not treating him with his famous pulao in the last 20 years.

It was earlier rumoured that Ahsan initially refused to work with Saleem for Pardes. According to the buzz, his pride didn't allow him to work with new actors. However, he clarified that someone else was finalised for the role earlier and the last-minute change was why he initially refused. The actors shared that they ended up having a great time shooting together and the chemistry was evident on screen. Ahsan even commended Saleem’s acting skills when he said, “She’s a natural. I didn’t think she would be this good considering she was new and had an issue with Urdu language too but she impressed us all with her acting skills.”

When asked about the correlation between Saleem’s law education and acting, she clarified that acting was her first choice; however, her parents wanted her to get a degree before she made a hasty decision.

“I had always been fond of acting. I wanted to be an actor even before I chose law. I used to do theatre plays back when I was at Lahore Grammar School, but my parents wanted me to get a ‘proper’ education and hence I went to UCL for law. Even after I came back from London, my parents elucidated their wish for me to do CSS but I stayed adamant on my desire to pursue acting,” said Saleem. Her family loosened up and let her go for an audition in Karachi and she's been in the industry for a year and a half since then.

The duo expressed their love for Lahore and how their hearts belong to the city of gardens while good projects and scripts require them to be in Karachi. Speaking about scripts, the actor believes that since it's the start of her career, she is not in a place to choose her scripts; however, she said, “What really matters to me is to have a versatile character in the script I get. I can't always be a damsel in distress or be known for a repetitive signature look. I want to experiment and appear in diverse roles and I've been lucky to have received that so far.”

Waheed confessed that his favourite co-actors so far have been Ramsha Khan, Hira Mani and Tooba Siddiqui. He’s in awe of their work given their humble personalities and educated backgrounds. On the other hand, Saleem wishes to work with Fawad Khan one day.

Waheed jokingly also confessed that Dure has a hard time remembering scripts and she often changes the Urdu dialogues while rehearsing. The Pardes stars chuckled reminiscing of a time where Dure said a wrong line very confidently on set. Affan recalled saying, “On set during a scene Dure said, ‘Acha, tum najoom ho? [Are you a horoscope?]’ When the original dialogue was a romantic and intense ‘Acha, tum ilm-e-nujoom bhi ata hai?[Oh, you know astrology as well?]’” The starlet said she’s working on her language and it gets better with practice.

The Do Bol actor likes to unwind every now and then and enjoys time alone. He said, “I’m wired that way. It is not like I’m anti-social or depressed or a lunar. I like to keep to myself and why not? We have to talk to a myriad of people during work hours that I prefer to be alone and enjoy myself after that,” Waheed remarked.

He has wrapped up his shootings and will be on a sabbatical for a few days to charge up for upcoming projects.

Coming to desi society’s favourite subject, marriage, the two actors showed no interest in tying the knot in the near future. Saleem revealed she once had a proposal from a white guy during her time in London and after considering it for a bit, she turned it down.

According to her co-star, her love interest would be someone submissive, tall, and educated. On the other hand, when Saleem was asked about Waheed’s behavior around his love interests, she said, “He’s shy but is also a hopeless romantic. His innocence is a love language and is reflective of his romantic charm.”

During this segment of unpacking secrets, Saleem shared shocking news of Waheed going through a hard breakup recently. On the positive side, this confirms that the actor is single and ready to mingle.