Arsalan Naseer says neither money nor fame can bring complete peace

Actor reflects on corporate life, journey to entertainment industry

Actor Arsalan Naseer discussed the transition from working a white-collar job to joining the entertainment industry, touching on how he realised along the way that neither money nor fame could bring complete peace.

In an interview, Naseer detailed his journey from leaving home at the age of 11 for boarding school, to designing comics, to juggling a corporate job, before entering the entertainment industry.

"I just go with the flow where Allah takes me," the actor said.

He admitted that as a child, academics were never quite where his heart was. "Usually every kid used to like studying, but I enjoyed arts and music more," Naseer recalled, sharing that he enjoyed watching dance, sketching and watching cartoons.

The actor's interest in the arts, however, did not immediately translate into a straightforward creative career. Instead, he got into an engineering college as well as fashion design colleges. When he told his family that he wanted to pursue a creative path, Naseer shared that they were surprised.

Eventually, the actor shared, "I did engineering, but I ran after three months."

Later, the actor moved to Ireland, where he considered studying business, marketing or advertising. He shared that his focus at the time was simple: he wanted to move towards a white-collar job and build a comfortable life. However, despite eventually earning millions and having an apartment, the actor noted, "I still realised that something was missing."

Coming back to Pakistan, Naseer eventually started his journey as a digital content creator. Having previously designed comics, the actor noted that content creation was far from a full-time commitment. "I just did it to have something on the side," he said.

What had once been a side project eventually grew into something much bigger. "I started hanging around celebrities and realised they also have issues too. They are not at peace," Naseer said. He added that seeing people who were beautiful, successful and influential yet still struggling internally forced him to reconsider the relationship between happiness and success.

"So I was like, what inner peace am I wanting from money or fame?" Naseer reflected. The answer, according to the actor, increasingly became simple. "I was like, I should go towards peace."

Discussing the entertainment industry, he noted that expectations changed with success. In the beginning, Naseer stated that he was happy with whatever opportunities came his way but after a few hit projects, he said that the desire to fulfil greater expectations followed. "At the moment, I’m trying my best," he said.

Shifting from career to matters of the heart, Naseer questioned dramatic ideas about romance that films have popularised. "Overrated is what is happening in films, like seeing someone in slow motion and having butterflies," the actor pointed out.

He added that for him, attraction had not always been immediate. "I have fallen for women who I never felt anything for at first look," he shared.

Recalling a time that he had become interested in a woman because of how different she was from what he might have expected, Naseer shared that she was confident, blunt and always "in your face." The actor described the woman as wealthy, proud and someone who was very open about what she wanted. He noted that these were precisely the same qualities that caught his attention.

"Some people try to hide those things, but then I grew interested in the confidence," he said.

Naseer also shared his thoughts on the modern obsession with identifying "red flags" and "green flags" in relationships. He admitted that he believed people could be too quick to judge one another. "You don't know how they will be in five days versus five years," he said.

For Naseer, every person who entered one's life may have something to teach. "Each person comes into your life to show you something," the actor said. He added that he believed people could change, saying, "I changed a lot. The kind of person I was 10 years back, I am not the same."

Rejecting the notion of fixed labels, the actor stated, "Maybe a red flag can later change to a green flag."

For someone whose own life moved from sketchbooks and comics to corporate offices, and eventually to becoming a name in the country's entertainment industry, Naseer is best known for his projects Jin Ki Shaadi Unki Shaadi and Chupke Chupke, with a journey marked by constant change.