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Tauqeer Nasir  In days when the television circles consider versatility an artist’s greatest asset, Tauqeer Nasir has defied tradition by emerging as the most un-versatile yet most successful television artist around. In this exclusive, he discloses his secret to us.
In a forum, the following question was once put to a famous P.T.V. director.“Why is Tauqeer Nasir cast in every play? Why don’t you try some one new for a change?”
and the answer was:
“We’ll change Tauqeer Nasir when the audience wants us to change him.”
And it seems as if this is one change that the audience will never desire for even when five out of the seven plays currently being shown on P.T.V. star Tauqeer Nasir, people still question why the other two have excluded him?
What makes Tauqeer Nasir so popular? Hmmmn..this is a rather debatable issue but many critics feel that it is the fact that Tauqeer has mastered a particular character to the degree that now people want to see him and only him in that role. “It seems to me as if I have only been doing the character of an angry, aggressive man all these years. Every time a new producer approaches me I hope for a change but no, it is the same role again with but a few variations here and there. And truly speaking, it is because of these small (some may even say insignificant) variations that I’m still continuing as a T.V. artist.”
“The frustration that I am experiencing as an actor is something that all the big names of our country have faced at one time or the other. The problem with our entertainment industry, be it the theatre, the film industry or T.V., is that it is very quick to apply labels on to actors. If Mustafa Qureshi was a hit as a villain once, he is bound to remain a villain for ever. If Amanullah revolutionized theatre by his stand-up comedy act one night, that is all producers are going to book him for. If you look at the western world, characters there are more balanced. In any one character, you will be made to see both weaknesses and strengths but in Pakistan, we are still clinging to a rather cartoonish division of characters. A character is either very good or very bad and it is this demarcation that has led to our actors being labeled and forced into performing only rather specific sort of roles.
How did you master this particular character?
A study of people in general and James Dean in particular. To date, it is his expressions that I copy and that the public enjoys.
Tauqeer Nasir’s entry into the world of television was completely accidental. Having heard this line from so many great actors, one wonders where we would get our performers from if these accidents ceased to happen.
“I had just completed my bachelor’s and had no commitments at that time so I decided to give acting a shot. Some one mentioned that auditions were being held for a play titled ‘Parvaaz’ and so I went ahead and gave it a shot. Arif Waqar was the producer and he conducted the auditions. Right after my audition, he told me that I was selected and said that he’d decide what role to give me later on in the week. My reply to this was: “I know next to nothing about acting so please give me a small role to do.” He merely smiled and nodded.
The next week when he called me in, he told me the name of my character and handed me a copy of the script. I started reading the script and as I read scene after scene, I discovered that my character was present in every scene.
‘I can’t do this!’ I exclaimed.
Arif sahib placed a hand on my arm and said:
‘You can – just tell me do you have time?’and I said yes, I do.
This is what led up to me doing the lead role in Parvaaz – the last black and white play ever to be telecast .
By your own admission, you entered P.T.V. on a whim, what made you continue in this field?
It was the response that my stint in Parvaaz received that made me want to continue. I was overwhelmed by the love and the respect showered on me by both the industry and the audience and so I decided to make this my career.
Within a couple of years (minus your entry), P.T.V. received numerous other actors and actresses such as Suhail Ahmed, Suhail Asghar etc. why aren’t many new faces seen on T.V. nowadays?
Because the newer lot that is entering is not committed. As I mentioned before when Arif Waqar gave me the lead role, my answer was:‘I can’t do it but yes, I have the time.’
Nowadays no new actor or actress will ever say this. A new actor would most probably say:
‘Of course I can do this but I’m short of time. I have a tennis lesson at four and then I have to meet a friend for dinner. You’ll have to adjust the rehearsal timings to suit me.’
And since no producer would ever want to compromise on the quality of his/her play, the producer ends up ditching these youngsters for experienced and more committed actors.
But wouldn’t you say the fault also lies with the producers for not encouraging new talent?
I was just coming to that. At the time when I was doing Parvaaz, I knew next to nothing about acting and realizing this Arif Waqar devoted a lot of extra hours to me. For a good two to three weeks before the actual recording of the play started, we rehearsed for seven to eight hours every day. Nowadays even the concept of rehearsals does not exist. And Arif Waqar sahib didn’t just end at rehersals – every day after the rehearsals were over, he would take me to his house and would revise the dialogues with me. Looking back, I’d say it was those long hours in his drawing room that taught me what acting is all about.
In those days, P.T.V. played the role of an institution for all of us. All the actors that you see receiving awards and putting in brilliant performances are all proud trainees of P.T.V. Now, the T.V. station has become a mere production house where producers are only worried about money and time. If Abid Ali can complete eight hours work in four while a new actor might take ten to twelve hours for the same job, the producer would opt for the former.
Since we’re discussing the past versus the present here, a term that television producers often use when talking about dramas made twenty years back is “classical dramas”. What do they imply when using this term?
My definition of a classical drama is that it is one that deals with issues of importance – child abuse, illiteracy, addiction etc. if you read dramas written by Fatima Surraya Bajia, Agha Hassan, Imtiaz Ali Taj, you will understand what a classical drama entails.
But such dramas took time to produce. Each drama would take up to an entire year, sometimes even more to complete.
And you feel such dramas aren’t being made nowadays?
No they are being made but the problem is that like I mentioned above, such dramas take a long time to complete and today all that producers are interested in is rapid production. Hence, the ratio of commercial dramas and sitcoms to classical dramas is increasing day by day. Thus, though the quantity of classical dramas has remained the same, the relative proportion has greatly fallen leading to an overall decline in the quality of T.V. productions.
The general opinion amongst critics is that today good actors can be found every where but good writers are found no where. Do you agree with this view?
No, because I feel one can not exist with out the other. It is a good script that makes an actor a character and it is a good actor that makes a character a person. Just like you have Uzma Gilani and Abid Ali, you also have people like Fatima Surraya, Khalil-u-Rehman etc.
Your roles in Kaghaz and Gharabbey Shahar (both serials are currently being broadcast) have gained immense popularity. What do you feel made these characters click with the audience?
The characters I play in both these serials are characters taken from an ordinary man’s life. In Kaghaz, I portray the simple yet often misunderstood relationship of a brother with his sister. Usually when an actor is asked to perform a role, he tends to impose his ‘observations’ on to the role and in this case my observations stemmed from all that I had heard and read about the relationship of Muhammed Ali Jinnah with his sister, Fatima.
In Gharabbey Shahar, I’ve been given the role of a young man trapped in a love triangle between his wife and the man she loves. Both these roles tug at an ordinary Pakistani’s heart- strings and this I feel is the reason for their popularity.
You are amongst the handful of T.V. actors who have tried their hands at making it big on the silver screen too. From all that we’ve heard and seen, your stint in the studios wasn’t all that successful. Why did you decide to try your hand at films in the first place?
I have always felt that the fact that people have stopped nursing any expectations from films, and the educated lot have completely abandoned the cinemas is one of our most sorrowful national tragedies. I entered the studios to try and awaken the people working in the studios. My sole aim in entering films was to make the people there realize that it is not T.V. alone that has to shoulder the burden of social reform – films too have to do their bit. I left the studios after realizing that I alone could do nothing.
Do you have plans of ever returning to the world of films?
Yes, but I can’t say when. I will return only when I feel that there are others present who understand the sorry state of films and who are willing to help me do something about it.
You mentioned above that the responsibility of social reform should be shared by all modes of expression and by all expressionists. Doesn’t that include theatre also?
Technically yes, but if you’re implying why I haven’t tried my hand at theatre then the answer is because I feel that theatre hardly exists in Pakistan. Just going on stage and cracking jokes does not qualify for theatre. Theatre is a proper and a very serious art form and it has completely disintegrated in our country. What we have is mirasees on stage and I’d rather not be a part of them.
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