You can either be a TikToker or an actor: Ahmed Ali Butt

Actor-host held that content creators typically lack temperament to work in television

Actor-host and musician Ahmed Ali Butt appeared as guest along with wife Fatima Khan on The Knock Knock Show with host Mohib Mirza where he expressed his take on the growing popularity of short-form video content via global platforms such as TikTok and Youtube. While public at large has positively received the influx of these content creators, as a showbiz professional Ahmed recognised little promise in TikTok’s mass appeal.

Remarking on the content-saturated environment of today’s time, Ahmed said, “Pretty much anything goes viral so it’s up to you. What do you want to go viral? People will watch anything.” The Jawani Phir Nahi Ani actor contested the narrative that only a certain type of media is acceptable for audiences, which he asserted, would engage with both ‘controversy’ and ‘quality’ given our phones’ portability. 

Ahmed added, “Content is the world’s biggest currency. It depends on what you want to create. Controversy or quality. This is TikTok’s reality, you and I might not like it, but this will have to be acknowledged and TikTok has a large viewership hence it’s still here.” 

Contrasting potential actors from TikTok’s arena with the professionals working in Pakistani film and television industry, the host insisted, “If TikTokers wish to transition to TV, they will have to learn the craft. A 15-second or 1-minute video can help you gather followers but it will not let you do a television drama.”

“[Most TikTokers] do not try to enter showbiz because it’s not their temperament to arrive at a set at 9 in the morning and wait until 3 for their scene to start filming,” Ahmed delved into the different work approaches between the two. He claimed, “You can either be a TikToker or an actor.”

The musician also stressed the transiency that shapes creators and their content on such short-form platforms, insisting upon the art of acting as a serious, full-time obligation and not an interest in passing. “I think these people will always chase the trend depending on what’s fashionable today. If today’s trend is TikTok, they’ll become TikTokers and so on,” Ahmed maintained. 

“Your serious actors will always be there because they take acting as full-time work. If you take one trend as part-time, you will perceive the next trend similarly as well,” he furthered on. Earlier, actor-producer Fahad Mustafa firmly denounced ‘content creators’ who leverage their families to boost audience numbers. 

The Na Maloom Afraad actor put his two cents in an interview with host and former cricketer Shoaib Akhtar. Fahad voiced his disapproval of the growing popularity of family-centric content responding to Shoaib’s inquiry about content creators entering film and TV industry.

Claiming “content is the most overrated word in this country”, Fahad pointed out how such content makers advertise everyday affairs at their home from cooking a meal in the kitchen to their interactions with their mothers, resorting to extreme measures for clicks. “There is no such content. Everyone is selling their families,” he harshly rebuked.

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