Women are burdened a lot more: Faysal Quraishi on working with married co-stars

Actor Faysal Quraishi recently sat down for an interview with a local publication, shedding light on his recent projects, as well as his experience working with younger actors in the industry. The actor also spoke about how the careers of women in showbiz suffer following the birth of their children, and how it has led to him starring with much younger leading ladies in his serials.

Faysal, who has been in the industry since the late 1980s, shared, “What worries junior actors? That seniors are standing in front of them. What worries seniors? That they don’t embarrass themselves in front of a junior actor. If a younger actor, who entered the industry 20 years after you did, remembers a six-page script better than you and you can’t memorize three lines, it’s a matter of shame. So, you also end up being more focused on work. You don’t want these kids to go and tell people you don’t know how to memorize your dialogues.”

Speaking about his varying characters and their different looks, with the actor playing a young ‘chocolate hero’ in Fitoor and an older professor in Dil e Momin, he reflected, “Actors have no age. It’s all about the character’s age. I am whatever age my character is.”

On how the female actors he started out with are no longer seen starring alongside him in leading roles, with his recent co-stars being from the younger lot of actors, Faysal explained that the women he worked with early on in his career have become engrossed in domestic responsibilities. “This has been a bit of an issue,” the actor responded, adding, “I think it’s because women end up getting married and taking care of their children so it’s more difficult for them [to continue their careers]. When I worked with Sunita [Marshall], she would always be worried about her kids. Shaista [Lodhi] would always be on the phone and would tell me how she didn’t know how to focus on work. When we were doing Baba Jani with Savera [Nadeem], she’d have [her children on video] the entire time. She’d be taking care of her kids and doing scenes at the same time.”

Elaborating further on how the careers of women in the industry take a back seat after marriage, Faysal continued, “Women are burdened a lot more. Men say they are running the house, but the actual work is done by the women. Even if she is an actor, she’ll be looking at the kids and groceries and whatnot at the same time.”

Citing the example of new parents Iqra Aziz and Yasir Hussain, he concluded, “This is an issue with female actors, they work fine until they are married. Even if you look at Iqra [Aziz], you notice how she’s taken on less work ever since she had a baby. She is a phenomenal actor. When I asked her why, she told me she has to take care of her child. Yasir [Hussain] is banging out projects one after the other.”