Bushra Ansari Urges Industry to Foster Mutual Respect

Pakistan’s legendary actress Bushra Ansari expresses her disappointment on Firdous Jamal statement about Pakistan’s showbiz industry, and She won’t sugarcoat it.

On Sunday Vlog, the actress spoke about Jamal’s comments and said, he acted improperly and overstepped boundaries.

Ansari said it was her firm belief that it was “difficult to find a mediocre actor” in Pakistan’s industry, but she wouldn’t announce it to the world even if she did find one.

Ansari believe that, in Pakistan’s showbiz industry, it was ‘difficult to find a mediocre actor’, and even if she discovered one, she wouldn’t broadcast it.

She said that correcting someone job and tell them how to act is kind ‘an insult for your colleague’s art that too on social media, is highly inappropriate’.

Calling him “an accomplished actor” instead of naming him, Ansari remarked that Jamal’s comments describing senior actors as “selfish,” “showpieces,” and “mediocre” were inappropriate, and said she would never criticize his work in that manner—even if it wasn’t very good.

Bushra Ansari said it show someone manners that you have no right to judge other one and utter some bad words for them, “That applies to all people, but to berate an artist after he has left the mortal realm? Someone saying something I can’t even repeat about Talat Hussain; or saying Abid [Ali] was selfish; or that Shafi [Muhammad] was of little use; or that Khayyam Sarhadi couldn’t speak well; that Rahat Kazmi, may God keep him safe, was a showpiece, this is very bad.”

She advised Jamal to consider the kind of example he is setting for those who follow. . “This is the height of bad manners and it’s what you’re passing down to the next generation. When you pass away, or I do, the kids will dig up our corpses and insult us, saying, ‘What did these fossils know, they acted so high and mighty when they were alive. They only knew to act in one tone.’ Who knows what people will say, don’t encourage such things.”

Ansari acknowledged that the actor was better than she was, yet noted he didn’t appear to be in a good place. “I don’t think he’s okay. He’s been through cancer, may God give him health, but I feel like his medications have made him forget how be respectful.”

She asked him to be mindful of the impact of his words on people, “Think of how Abid Ali’s daughters feel and his wife. Think of Talat Hussain… his children must be feeling terrible. Shafi’s son… think of how he feels. You spoke about Rahat Kazmi, think about how his son feels. What are you saying… Get a hold of yourself, please, get some rest.”

Weighing in on the podcast trend, Ansari said it feels like everyone has one now. She revealed she’s appeared on just a single podcast—Ahmed Ali Butt’s—only because she knew his grandmother, while adding that her time in the industry has given her a strong understanding of interviews.

She lightened up that, these day people forgotten how to be respectful on podcasts and interviewers, she referred her previous days like Khushbakht Shujaat, Obaidullah Baig, Mehtab Rashdi and Tariq Aziz how they treated their guests with dignity and respect.

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On April 20 Jamal was a guest on the podcast name The Yazziastic Show, where he spoke about his fellow artists and colleagues. He said Ali was a “type actor” and “selfish”, while calling Hussain “monotonous” and reliant on “cheap theatricalities”. Sarhadi, he said, was “difficult to understand” and lacked the finesse of a trained artist.

He also mentioned Qavi Khan and praise him, and about Kazmi he called him a ‘showpiece’ rather than an actor. He used a word ‘ self centred’ for Shujaat Hashmi, said Muhammad fell short in terms of skill and technique.

As a senior actor, it not the first time to face criticism on his public comments. In 2019 he mentioned Mahira Khan as well, which led to industry-wide outrage and were denounced broadly as discriminatory and ageist and sexist.

The situation peaked when Momina Duraid introduced her production company, MD Productions, “will not work with him again in any capacity because of his sexist, regressive and discriminatory attitude”.