INSTEP INTERVIEW

Most TV and film actors, who start their acting careers from theatre, stand out amidst the rest because of their fine skills and grip on the craft. They are trained to perform in front of a live audience where there is little to no margin for errors and the feedback comes right away. However, theatre remains the most neglected medium of performing arts compared to TV, film and/or music and deserves more attention than it gets.

Despite the challenges due to lack of resources and financial support in theatre, there is a slew of artists associated with it for years, who believe it to be their true calling. One of them is the young yet very talented Hassan Raza, who played the role of Akbar during the Lahore and Islamabad run of Anwar Maqsood’s Naach Na Jaanay that concluded earlier this year.

With a credible body of work in the world of theatre, Hassan comes from a middle-class and very religious, Gujrati family based in Karachi. Due to family pressure and lack of career counselling while he was young, he was never very sure of what he wanted to become. However, he did know that there is so much he wanted to do and hence he chose to be an actor that would allow him to take on multiple roles at once.

"My father was a businessman and he wanted to me to do a white collar job," Hassan recalled, adding that while he was in second year of his graduation, he had realized what he wanted to do. "I took admission in a drama school for proper lessons and graduated from NAPA."

"I never wanted to be an actor; I wanted to be so many things but I was always confused. I started studying at NAPA; I did not know I would end up as an actor and it has been nine years since my association with theatre began. I am content with my progress. Every person is acting one way or the other; I do it on stage."

Hassan will soon be making his television and film debut and he is very excited for the two upcoming projects as he wants to explore all mediums within the field of performing arts. "I was waiting to prepare myself as I didn’t want to go unprepared. It is better to be good at it first," he responded when asked what took him so long to make his debut on screen.

Reflecting on his most recent role, Akbar, in Naach Na Jaanay, Hassan shared that he was overwhelmed with the feedback he received. "It was a phenomenal experience. This was a character that we actors dream of playing onstage. I have worked with Anwar Maqsood before in Siachen; his sentences are so well written that even if an actor isn’t good, the sentences leave a mark and if the actor is good, he gets so much recognition."

However, he mentions that as much as he cares about what the audience feels about his acting, it is not more important than his director’s feedback. And the director, Dawar Mehmood, praised him for his performance.

Was he nervous and how did he take the comparisons made with Yasir Hussain, given that the latter played the part during the Karachi run of the play?

"If I had not seen Yasir’s performance I would have been nervous but I had seen him and that helped me calm down. Everyone made comparisons, some of which I didn’t agree with. I think Yasir was phenomenal as Akbar and I feel people also loved me as Akbar. Both of us treated the character differently and portrayed a different rendition of the character but what matters is, we were loved by viewers."

Earlier on, Hassan played a key role in Jasoosi Duniya alongside Saman Ansari while he also played the role of Ranjha in Zain Ahmed’s Heer Ranjha, opposite Sanam Saeed. "Saman (Ansari) and Sanam (Saeed) are incredibly talented and despite my inhibitions at first, they made it easier for me to work with them," he noted, sharing his experience of working with both actresses.

With almost a decade in theatre, Hassan admits that theatre has given him as much as he has given to theatre and it means everything to him. However, he asserted that those who use theatre as a stepping stone to other mediums, it doesn’t work for them always. He said, "Theatre is a school; if we do theatre we should do it only for ‘theatre’.

"Theatre has evolved overall but as far as finances are concerned, theatre has not been able to make a mark except for a few production houses such a Kopykats," Hassan continued, adding that he hasn’t seen much scope in terms of money otherwise.

On a parting note, Hassan advised aspiring actors to pay attention to details around them, stay alert and have a very keen observation of their surroundings. "Try to be honest onstage and in life," he concluded.