Bushra Ansari, Behroze Sabwari talk friendship, early careers and life of art in digital age

Longtime friends and veteran actors made an appearance on 'Time Out With Ahsan Khan'

Longtime friends and veteran actors Bushra Ansari and Behroze Sabzwari appeared on Time Out with Ahsan Khan to talk about their graceful aging, early careers in the showbiz industry and the life of television dramas and music in the digital world now.

Starting as child stars from Lahore and Karachi respectively, it’s been 43 years to Ansari’s career in entertainment so far, with music, television, film and theatre up her belt, while Sabzwari has completed a whopping 55 years in showbiz.

Upon being asked how difficult it was for her to stay in the acting world while simultaneously taking care of family, Sabzwari offered to answer the question on Ansari’s behalf. “I’ll tell you because I have seen it live. From cooking to cleaning her house, Ansari’s day started with dressing up her children for school then dropping them to school and picking them herself also. After that, she’d go to recordings and then a stage show in the evening and that’s all in one day.” The Zebaish actor added, “That too with my nail colour and lashes on. I never looked messed up at all.”

Talking about her inspiration to join and stay the most consistent with her work among her sisters, Ansari shared that it was all about opportunity. “Although my father had a musical background and was well-read about classical music, he was always hesitant for us to join the industry, especially when we started to grow older. As children, he’d allow us to go sing in a children music show on TV but as soon as we grew a little taller, he pulled the reins,” she mentioned.

The Udaari actor shared that she got lucky with her husband being an actor on PTV back in the day. “He never stopped me and I officially got myself back in the showbiz world. But unfortunately, my sisters couldn’t do the same until later. One of them moved to US to write and Asma [Abbas] was married to a Fauji and so she had to wait for her husband to retire to get back.”

Ansari also revealed that she always had this chaska (thirst) for fame. “I was talented sure, but I also had this determination to get famous. I liked the importance I got.”

Moving on to Sabzwari’s entry to the world of glamour, he shared that he had no idea about all of this until a PTV producer Aftab Azeem took him, along with a lot of neighbourhood kids, to a fancy dress show in 1968 – right after the onset of PTV. “I dressed up as a chowkidar and it was a live show since where Ishrat Ansari approached Aftab sahab to cast me in a play which was going on air the next day. I didn’t even know about it and I was on TV doing a play, That’s how it started,” he said.

Talking about the script of period dramas nowadays, Ansari remembered Bano Qudsia, a senior writer, who has now backed out of writing screenplays. "With how commercial the modern scripts are, many senior writers have backed out. There must be something alarming that they decided to quit their craft than try in this industry."

The veteran actors disagreed with the host on the statement that it has become easier to get famous in the digital world with viral clips and marketing promotion gimmicks. “Dramas are nowadays like newspapers. People read it fresh in the mornings and by noon, they’re discarded in trash or used in between shelves and utensils for all purposes except the one it is intended for,” shared Sabzwari. “It is that short-lived. A super hit drama that went on air last year will be remembered by only a handful of people. It’s easily forgotten now.”

Ansari went on to add, “Like our play Zara Si Aurat, projects used to have substance in its content that made it memorable. If you look at music back in the days, Woh Ishq Jo Humse Rooth Gaya, Aye Watan Pyare Watan, Amanat Ali Khan’s songs – they’re not forgotten.”

Sabzwari further named singers whose legacies remain long after they’re gone. “Ahmed Rushdie, Mehdi Hasan, they’re all lived. Quality of work was better. Now it's more commercial and focused on quantity.” However, both of them added that they don’t blame the younger generation since they haven’t seen those times.

On the subject of music and legendary singers, Ansari disclosed her relationship with ace singer Musarrat Nazir. “She is my aunt, she is the wife of my father’s first cousin. I have done a lot of parodies of her songs. I’ve been in awe of her charismatic personality always. Infact, I have done parodies of all beautiful ladies including Salma Agha, Tahira Saeed and Madam Noor Jehan.”

Since they started their careers together and starred in a lot of dramas together, the acting powerhouses are also bestfriends. Talking about their friendship, Ansari revealed that she actually has Sabzwari's number listed as her emergency contact--and always did--- and it actually created an issue for the latter once.

"Not my husband, not my sister, not a family member. It's Behroze listed as my emergency contact. This one time, without thinking, to just share how friendships like these are rare and beautiful, I put a screenshot on Instagram sharing the list. Within 5 minutes, he got so many calls as to whats going on. I deleted it instantly," quipped Ansari.

Coming to the present, Khan commented on how the actors are still fit like their prime times even now. “I’ve always been underweight and that helps now,” quipped Ansari when the host Ahsan Khan asked the acting powerhouse duo about their fitness routines and graceful aging.

“If you look at Samina Ahmed, Rubina [Ashraf], me, even Behroze and Javed [Sheikh], we’ve always had these petite and slim bodies. You know we ate quality, healthy food in our times.” Adding to the comment, Sabzwari pointed the irony and laughed, “Quality food as in jalebis and samosas from Bahadurabad.” He further added, “Jokes apart, it’s a fact that if you have a good heart, your face automatically glows to show it.” Like4:54 am