Shaan lashes out at award shows

Actor calls for the creation of an actor’s guild in Pakistan

KARACHI: With over 570 films under his belt, actor Shaan Shahid has witnessed Lollywood evolve into Pakistani cinema. When all of his contemporaries turned to easier mediums like Television for acting, he still stood his ground.  Which is why whenever the artist takes a stand on anything pertaining to the entertainment industry, it makes waves. His recent facebook post about the need of an actor’s guild in Pakistan criticises the award shows for not giving the artists there due respect.

“When will our artists unite? We need an actor’s guild in Pakistan, not for anybody else’s benefit but to fulfill our own need. There should be a minimum fee for whatever they do, even if it is for going on a branded award show. Awards are prestigious, they should not be commercial. It is the society’s way of honouring its own artist,” wrote Shaan.

He further went on to say that honour is something that you’re born with and it cannot be taken away. He held people who can’t make anything  on their own and only rely on selling the artist’s work  need to give due respect to the artists by giving them a share of the return.



“We must care for each other as one big family. And that does not mean giving artists a branded wooden trophy, which will only go on the shelves of honour, glorifying the past but not promising the future. We need to wake up to the cruelty and injustice that we see happening to us every day. Remember, no commercial break means no money, and more commercial breaks mean more money.”

It’s clear that Shaan was unhappy with the way artists were treated at a local award show and is calling for a more lucrative approach towards awarding the artists. Whether such awards hold a stronger emotional value or financial value is subjective to every artist but a more important issue that Shaan has raised is that of a possibility of an actor’s guild in Pakistan. The idea of a guild maybe a little farfetched   for our industry but it is still an important step towards giving it a direction. Let’s see if other artists follow suit.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th,  2015.

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