Veteran actors Saba Faisal, Sajid Hassan talk TV ratings and choosing scripts

Industry veterans Saba Faisal and Sajid Hassan recently made an appearance on Time Out with Ahsan Khan, with the two actors sharing their thoughts on choosing scripts and the state of the showbiz industry in Pakistan. Saba, a staple face on Pakistani television, shed light on her vast list of acting credits, while Sajid, who starred in the hit drama serial Dhoop Kinare in PTV’s heyday, spoke about how the local industry continues to suffer due to unchecked censorship.

On playing so many different characters in a short span of time, Saba shared, “For the past 20 years, my entire life has revolved around acting. I live in Karachi and my family is in Lahore. If I’m in a different city for work, why shouldn’t I focus on work as much as I can?” 

Reflecting on the criticism she received for taking on such a high number of projects, the Raqeeb Se actor revealed,  “When I first started in this field, I would get a lot of criticism. People would say to me, ‘Saba, leave something for us as well. You’re in every drama.’ I wouldn’t say anything because they were all my seniors at the time.” 

She added, “They were in Lahore then, and when they came to Karachi, they’d be busy all the time. I went on set once and they were already there, and I asked, ‘Tell me, when you have the opportunity to work, do you feel like letting it go?’... If you get good quality work, why should you not take it up?”

When asked about TV ratings, Saba explained, “All of my dramas get [good] ratings, because of the fact that my dramas do not go beyond the boundaries of saas-bahu. It’s very rare that it happens.”

The Baaghi actor continued, “This is what the people who watch TV want. Our viewers in villages and rural areas have the same mentality where they prefer this kind of content. If you bring in another topic, the drama does not do well. One or two might have worked out, which is a big deal, but the ones that are most popular are the saas-bahu dramas or the ones revolving around family politics.”

When asked how he feels the local film and TV industry compares to Hollywood and Bollywood, with Sajid having worked in the latter two as well, the Ek Jhoota Lafz Mohabbat actor responded, “Our industry has come very far and managed a lot despite the restrictions and the fact that we are a poor country. We are also a very conservative and confused country, especially in terms of censorship.”

He continued, “If you are going to ban something for no real reason, then a lot of intelligent content also ends up shut down… The world is a global village. We can’t flourish if we continue running things with the same mindset held by men some 30 to 40 years ago. You have to do things in a politically correct way now. You can fight in the name of ethnicity or religion as much as you want, but at the end of the day, you can come together and integrate. Pakistan was meant to be a very cosmopolitan country. That’s what the Quaid intended, but we haven’t really followed him in that regard.”

Asserting how the lack of education in the country is to blame for the state of things, Sajid added, “We have a lot more commentators now… We have to decide who is saying the right thing and who isn’t, and you need intelligence for that. That’s something we are lacking in. You go out in the city and you find out that children aren’t getting the kind of education they need. It is expensive. It’s so odd, in our country, health and education are so expensive. Basic human rights.”

Speaking about her process of picking scripts, Saba explained, “When I get a huge project, I usually don’t have time to read it so I ask them to give me one-liners. Let me know if the woman I’m playing has a life of her own and there is more to her character than just bringing in tea and coffee for others. Does she have any importance in the script? After that, I ask them about who my co-actors will be because it’s very important to be comfortable with your co-artists.”

“If I can’t find out much about the character, I ask them about the budget. I figure that if they’re giving me a significant budget, then they’ll have me do something significant,” she added. 

For Sajid, however, the psyche of the character is often more important than the significance of it. Revealing that he was once offered to play the role of the infamous serial killer Javed Iqbal, who was recently portrayed by actor Yasir Hussain in the now-banned film, the senior actor shared, “I  was once offered the Javed Iqbal role that was recently done by Yasir Hussain, but I couldn’t do it… When you assume a character and its psyche, at some level, you start to get closer to it. Actors have this issue. When I’m playing a negative character, my wife starts to get concerned.”