Pakistani Talent on the International Stage

Con­ver­sa­tion with Gohar Rasheed

For this month’s issue of The Laal­tain, we caught up with Gohar Rasheed – an actor not many in Pak­istan may have heard of yet, but who soon promis­es to take the act­ing scene in the coun­try by storm. Gohar has been cre­at­ing rip­ples on the inter­na­tion­al film fes­ti­val cir­cuit for his pow­er­ful per­for­mance in the film Seedlings (Lamha), which won the Best Audi­ence Choice Award and Best Female Actor Award at the 2012 New York Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val and was nom­i­nat­ed in sev­en cat­e­gories (includ­ing a nom­i­na­tion for Gohar as Best Actor in a Sup­port­ing Role).

Hav­ing arranged to meet up at a busy cafe in Lahore one win­ter night, Gohar walked in with an easy smile and opened with the lines “please excuse my long hair and beard. I know I look like a bona fide vil­lain, but it’s for my next role”. Hav­ing effort­less­ly bro­ken the ice, we sat down to the busi­ness of learn­ing all about what makes this 28 year old tick, how he came upon the role that changed his life, and the big plans he has ahead. And here’s what he had to say:

Has act­ing always been a pas­sion?

Absolute­ly. My majors were The­atre, Film and TV and minors were Jour­nal­ism at Bea­con­house Nation­al Uni­ver­si­ty in Lahore and then got involved in the­atre act­ing. I also did a cou­ple of plays for TV, but I always knew this is what I want to do with my life.

It’s not easy in Pak­istan, because we don’t even have the basic infra­struc­ture or sup­port sys­tem avail­able else­where to be able to do what we do, so every­thing is a strug­gle. But the big­ger the chal­lenge, the more ful­fill­ing it seems in the end.

How did you end up with your role in Seedlings (Lamha)?

OK, this is some­thing else no one knows! I found out that audi­tions for this film were being held here in Karachi so I went along with my friend Ali Chaudary to try out. Now the prob­lem is that I’m actu­al­ly ter­ri­ble at audi­tions. Like real­ly ter­ri­ble. So when I did the audi­tion, which was basi­cal­ly a scene from the film, I was con­vinced that I had bombed it and noth­ing would come of it. Lat­er I found out that the peo­ple tak­ing the audi­tion were real­ly hap­py with the per­for­mance I gave, and decid­ed on the spot that I was the one they want­ed for the role. I got a call telling me I had made it through, but I was still reluc­tant. Final­ly, my friend Hamza Ali Abbasi con­vinced me that I should take it up, even just for the expe­ri­ence. And the rest is his­to­ry.

What was the expe­ri­ence of act­ing in this film like? There must be moments that real­ly stood out and that have stayed with you since.

I couldn’t have asked for a bet­ter first role, and that’s main­ly because of the peo­ple I got to know through it. It was an incred­i­ble learn­ing expe­ri­ence because the oth­er actors, the pro­duc­er, the direc­tor – who were all my seniors – real­ly went out of their way to help me give my best. Ami­na Shaikh and Mohib Mirza (the lead­ing actors in the film) are not only bril­liant actors but bril­liant human beings. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it’s very rare in Pak­istan for peo­ple who are more accom­plished than you to take the time and inter­est to help you devel­op your own skill. But that’s exact­ly what Ami­na and Mohib did every step of the way. Man­soor Mujahid (the Direc­tor), Sum­mer Nicks (the writer) and Meher Jaf­fery (the pro­duc­er) were metic­u­lous in the way they planned every scene, and they ensured that they talked us through every­thing before­hand. And this was a real­ly refresh­ing expe­ri­ence, because usu­al­ly what hap­pens here is that you land up on the set and are told right there and then what scene you will be doing, and you just have to do what you can on the spot.

How was the film received by inter­na­tion­al audi­ences?

The reac­tion was tru­ly over­whelm­ing. None of us expect­ed it. We had two pre­miers sched­uled in the New York Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val at Tribeca cin­e­ma, but due to the huge pub­lic demand the orga­niz­ers had to sched­ule anoth­er screen­ing there. I was amazed to see so many peo­ple in the audi­ence cry­ing.

After the first screen­ing, dur­ing the Q&A ses­sion, a lady in the audi­ence got up and said she would like to direct her com­ment to me. I was sud­den­ly pet­ri­fied because I didn’t know whether she was going to tell me off or say I had done a ter­ri­ble job in the film. But to my amaze­ment she just stood and clapped in appre­ci­a­tion, which led the entire audi­ence to give us a stand­ing ova­tion. It was one of the proud­est moments I have ever expe­ri­enced, and it demon­strat­ed to me that if you work hard and pro­duce qual­i­ty work it will be recog­nised.

We’re all eager­ly await­ing the film in Pak­istan; none of us have actu­al­ly seen it yet. When will it be pre­mier­ing here?

If all goes well, we’re look­ing at March 2013. We want­ed it to be much soon­er but there were so many hic­cups along the way. We’re all eager­ly antic­i­pat­ing how the film will be received here, so let’s see. There’s noth­ing like earn­ing appre­ci­a­tion for your work in your own coun­try, so I’m hop­ing for the best!

Do you feel that projects such as this, whether they are films, per­for­mances, lit­er­a­ture or art, are a good oppor­tu­ni­ty to show­case what Pak­istan has to offer to the world?

Absolute­ly. It’s now more than ever that Pak­istan needs to be able to show­case its tal­ent to the world. And from my expe­ri­ence with Seedlings (Lamha) I can vouch for the fact that these things do have an impact inter­na­tion­al­ly. I actu­al­ly attend­ed the fes­ti­val in New York wear­ing a sher­wani and a Jin­nah cap, and peo­ple were gen­uine­ly intrigued about my clothes. It was a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for me to explain the sig­nif­i­cance the Jin­nah cap holds for Pak­ista­nis, and even­tu­al­ly I end­ed up gift­ing the cap to the CEO of the fes­ti­val because he liked it so much!

It was a great feel­ing being able to rep­re­sent my coun­try at such a forum, and I real­ly feel we need to strive to do more of this. Only then will we be able to show the world how much tal­ent, pas­sion and poten­tial Pak­istan has.

What does Gohar Rasheed plan to do with him­self next?

There are a lot of excit­ing things going on at the moment. Cur­rent­ly, I’m pro­duc­ing an action com­e­dy fea­ture film called ‘Kam­bakht’. My good friend Hamza Ali Abbasi is the direc­tor, and the planned release is in sum­mer 2013. I’m also act­ing in two upcom­ing films called ‘Mein Hoon Shah­di Afri­di’ and ‘The Extor­tion­ist’. I can’t divulge too many details about these projects at this stage but I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to how they will turn out. And of course, my show in FM91 called ‘Pak­istan­wal­lah’ will con­tin­ue. I love radio, so it’s not some­thing I want to give up doing any­time soon.

So we’ll end on a clichéd note, and ask if there’s any­thing you would like to say to those young aspir­ing actors that are try­ing to make their way in Pak­istan?

[laughs] Well all I can real­ly say is do your best, give your 100% and leave the rest to God. He always comes through soon­er or lat­er.

Favourite Actors – Moeen Akhtar, Bushra Ansari, Antho­ny Hop­kins, Meryl streep, Aamir khan, Kir­ron Kher and the list goes on & on
Favourite Films – Pan’s Labyrinth, A Sep­a­ra­tion, Yip Man, Scent of a Woman, Khu­da Ke Liye, Meet Joe Black, The Pianist, Dil Chah­ta Hai, Mugal-e-azam etc.

(Pub­lished in The Laal­tain — Issue 7)