Pakistanis have been working in international projects since 1989 and like art knows no boundaries, their talent too knows no bounds. The countrymen have built themselves a reputation that one cannot turn away from, be it Hollywood or Bollywood, they have proven themselves time and time again and today we’re taking you back to where it all began.
Who were the pioneers of going international?
Although film actors Saqi and Neelo did appear in the Hollywood film Bhowani Junction in the 1950s, it didn’t require them to travel abroad since the film was shot in Pakistan. The door to international productions opened for Pakistani actors in 1989 when prominent TV actors Talat Hussain, Jamal Shah, and Faryal Gohar played important roles in Channel 4’s Traffik. The British miniseries revolved around illegal smuggling and was applauded internationally for its innovative way of using local actors for local roles, instead of casting white actors to play brown folks.
Jamal Shah played the farmer who was evicted from his land while Talat Hussain played the drug lord who is part of the business. Faryal Gohar who was married to Jamal Shah at that time also played an integral part in the miniseries alongside Rahat Kazmi, Saqib Sheikh, and Behroze Sabzwari. Hollywood director Steven Soderberg adapted the miniseries into a film Traffic in 2000, which went on to win four Oscars that year.
Traffik wasn’t the only international project to feature more than one Pakistani actor; in 2007, Angelina Jolie’s A Mighty Heart featured two of the finest Pakistani actors Sajid Hasan and Adnan Siddiqui in prominent roles, besides British – Pakistani actor Alyy Khan as the main antagonist. While Sajid Hasan went on to act in an Indian film Azaan after that, Adnan Siddiqui played late Sridevi’s husband and Sajal Aly’s dad in the movie Mom. In fact, Sajal Aly will be part of Jemima Goldsmith’s What’s Love Got to Do With? That also features Shabana Azmi and is directed by her Masoom director Shekhar Kapur.
And then there was Hameed Sheikh who began his acting career in the 1990s from PTV Quetta and was associated with CNN in the 2000s. He made his comeback to acting through Shoaib Mansoor’s Khuda Ke Liye and went on to produce the international flick Kandahar Break in 2009. Not only did the film introduce Tatmain Ul Qulb as the leading lady, but it also featured Rasheed Naz who was yet to make his presence felt in Bollywood.
A couple of years back, Hameed Sheikh appeared in The Man From Kathmandu opposite Bollywood star Gulshan Grover, whereas in The Window, he would be sharing the screen with three Pakistani actors – Suhaee Abro, Sami Khan, and Faysal Quraishi.
But the man behind The Window – Faran Tahir – is another Pakistani American who has been making his country proud in Hollywood. His parents Naeem Tahir and Yasmin Tahir were associated with theatre and TV in Pakistan, and Faran went a step further and found his footing in Hollywood. He has worked in countless blockbusters including Iron Man, Star Trek, Torn, Escape Plan, and Charlie Wilson’s War to name a few, while has featured in JAG, NCIS, Blacklist, Warehouse 13, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder as well.
However, when producers of Torn wanted a Pakistani actress as Faran Tahir’s wife for the movie, they had to choose someone who fit the role of a teenager’s mother and would look both classy and believable. And that’s how Mahnoor Baloch made her Hollywood debut, and carried the film like a pro, and showed her colleagues back home that no matter how many followers you have on social media, Hollywood only goes for merit.
Who else has gone abroad amongst current actors?
Humayun Saeed might have been able to make it to Netflix with The Crown, but he isn’t the first one to make it to an international series. A lot of Pakistanis including Fawad Khan and Samina Ahmed are part of the under-production Ms. Marvel TV series, a few episodes of which are being directed by Oscar-winner Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. Before them, veteran actor Asif Raza Mir appeared in the first season of Sky TV’s web series Gangs of London and recently completed his work in the second season of the same series.
Renowned TV actor Adnan Jaffer who is currently playing an Army officer in Geo TV’s Jo Bichar Gaye donned the uniform in the final season of Showtime’s Homeland, playing a Pakistani General who seeks the help of his predecessor, also played by a Pakistani – American actor Art Malik. That’s not all, Ali Kazmi has been quite active in the international circuit and was part of TV shows like Alphas, The Border, Covert Affairs and Taken. He even went on to act in multiple international projects most notably The Breadwinner, Beeba Boys, and Funny Boy, which won accolades all over the world.
In 2013, singer and actress Meesha Shafi appeared in Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist as the lead character’s younger sister, and her performance was appreciated all over the world. It is no surprise that she went on to act in a Pakistani film Waar and a Bollywood flick Bhaag Milkha Bhaag the same year, becoming the only Pakistani actress ever to do so.
She wasn’t the only pretty face from Pakistan to make it internationally though; British born Mikaal Zulfiqar also had the honour of sharing the screen with Brian Cox, Om Puri, and Naseeruddin Shah in Shoot On Sight in 2007, after which Mikaal made his film debut for Bollywood first, and Pakistan later. He worked in as many as four Indian films including Akshay Kumar’s Baby (2015), which also featured fellow Pakistani actors Rasheed Naz and Hasan Noman in the cast.
