Bigg Boss: The show goes on...

Ali Saleem changes into Begum Nawazish and interviews house mates; not happy about working without script.

MUMBAI: The third episode of “Bigg Boss 4” was for Ali Saleem to finally get his 15 minutes of fame on the show. After being instructed by ‘Big Boss’ to change his Begum Nawazish Ali avatar and interview house mates, Saleem hurried off to prepare.

The actor’s transformation into the begum was quite a sight to watch, as he got into his sari, shaved, applied copious amounts of make-up and did his hair. As reformed bandit Seema Parihar sniggered silently, Saleem’s housemates helped him change into a sari. But as Begum Nawazish Ali - without a script or prepared questions - he didn’t make much of an impact. While it is understandable that he is used to a great deal of preparation before interviews, the questions he asked were fairly average. “Na koi pen diya, na paper diya, script hota hai, cue card hote hain,” was Saleem’s comment about his performance as a host.

Meanwhile, a group of prominent Mumbai residents and activities have condemned the opposition of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to Colors TV for including two Pakistanis — Veena Malik and Ali Saleem — in the show and urged the central and state governments to provide them with full security.

Questioning the rationale of the two parties’ opposition to the Pakistanis, the group said that Bollywood movies and television programmes are exported and beamed to South Asia and the rest of the world.

“Hindi movies are immensely popular all over South Asia, including Pakistan. Pakistani artistes are also popular in India and the two countries share a common history,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

They listed the contribution of renowned Pakistani artistes like Ghulam Ali, Mehdi Hassan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Faiz Ahmed Faiz and mentioned how the Pakistani contingent at the ongoing Commonwealth Games got a huge round of applause.

“Music, art, sports have no boundaries. They are the messengers of peace, friendship and love. We need to promote and encourage exchange of artists. People-to-people contact needs to be promoted as they are the best bet to promote peace,” the group urged.

“If the Shiv Sena and MNS have an issue or objection they must first use democratic means to voice their objection and not use goons to force their views upon people,” they asserted.

Earlier this week, Shiv Sena activists made their way to the house “Bigg Boss 4” is being filmed in and beat up security guards outside. After the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, activists also threatened Pakistani comedian Shakeel Siddiqui, who was filming a television programme in the city at the time.

The statement has been signed by several activists including filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and Jatin Desai from the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy.

With additional information by the News Desk

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2010.