Drama actor who went viral for ‘fake’ British accent reacts

Abubakr Shak from ‘Khudsar’ reveals he grew up in the UK

Recently made viral sensation for his role as Nauman in the Pakistani drama Khudsar, Abubakr Shak finally addressed the way social media has criticised him for putting up a fake English accent.

Much to everyone’s surprise, during a radio interview on BBC Asian Network, it was revealed that Abubakr did indeed grow up in the UK and his accent is far from fake. “I grew up in England, so, I got this accent from the various parts of the UK which include Swansea, Cardiff, London, Glasgow and Manchester,” said the newbie actor.

Videos making rounds on TikTok and Instagram poke fun at one particular scene in the drama in which Abubakr’s Nauman is talking to his father about his stepmother. In the beginning of the scene, Nauman bumps into his stepmother in the house never having met her before as he recently returned from London. Nauman asks her, “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” a line from the drama that has since then become popular. Later on, he tells his father, “She’s not my mother, Dad. She’s just your second wife.”

“The first scene which went viral was the one in which I inquired about my stepmother. It wasn’t me who wanted to use those phrases like ‘my foot’. Who uses such words? It was in the script, and I can’t change the script” said Abubakr. He even tried to convince people to make some modifications to the dialogues to make them sound more natural but came back unsuccessful. “I couldn’t change anything even though I really wanted to. I even went and told the director about it.”

Undeterred by faceless haters behind a screen who claim he was only (horribly) acting as an English person, the actor confidently stated, “I know who I am. Why should I be scared? Scared of what? Even if I was pretending to be British in a hypothetical situation, what’s it to do with you? Why is it bothering you so much?”

Towards the end of the interview, listeners were treated to recordings of the Abubakr’s now famous dialogues. Amused by someone’s rendition of the “my foot” dialogue, the actor quipped, “No, you’re doing it wrong. You have to pronounce your ‘T’ stronger the way I do.”

Social media did not know how to react to the news of Abubakr’s accent being real and not a horrible impression. One user commented, “I’m shocked he actually sounds like that.” Others claimed it wasn’t his accent but the bad acting that made him go viral. “It’s not the accent, it’s the way he said it,” a user wrote. Another said, “If he acted naturally the way he is now in the interview, it would have been so much better.”

One user even went as far as to say, “Acting isn’t your thing. Go and find something else.” They weren’t alone in their sentiments. “I don’t think it was the accent as much as it was the accent along with the expressionless face,” wrote another.