Television, being a mass medium in Pakistan, has introduced numerous new faces over the years, many of whom have gone on to become household names. Some actors who have recently caught the attention of TV-watching audiences include Osama Tahir, Nabeel Zuberi, Zoya Nasir and Natalia Awais, among others, and the list keeps expanding.

This year, one of the newcomers who we will see on the small screen is content creator Arslan Naseer, founder of Comics By Arslan (CBA). He will be making his acting debut in an upcoming, untitled Ramazan special series that he has been shooting for.

Active since 2011, Arslan Naseer has been creating humorous content on his social media channels and through that has picked up a huge fan following. Certain celebrities, including Ahad Raza Mir and Sajal Aly, have also appreciated his work by re-sharing his fun take on their TV commercials.

In this exclusive interview with Instep, Arslan shares what paved the way for his acting debut, how he found the experience and whether he plans to continue with acting in the future.

“I have been part of the corporate sector for many years and was seriously thinking of taking my YouTube career full time,” he began to share, adding that this isn’t the first time he got an offer from the TV industry. “But I suppose this came at the right moment as I was about to take the leap of faith and was planning on quitting my day job. Though it happened all of a sudden, God has been kind and the timing was right.”

The upcoming untitled series, according to Arslan, is a tale of two families who are not only neighbors but are also related, as grandmothers of both the families were part of a polygamous marriage i.e. married to the same person. “Both the ladies have a never-ending beef but their grandchildren think otherwise. It’s a love-hate relationship of one big family that is filled with occasional jealousy, friendship, love and lots of laughter,” he explained, revealing that he is playing the eldest son in one of the families and is best friends with the eldest son (essayed by Osman Khalid Butt) of the other family.

Sharing his experience of working in a TV project for the first time, Arslan maintained that it was great because the team is amazing. Director Danish Nawaz is quite supportive as are members of the cast. “We have a great time on the set and that is what matters at the end of the day,” he expressed.

“Initially I was not too sure about taking up acting as a career but it’s a great learning experience,” he furthered. “Each individual on the set, from the tea boys to the makeup artist to the leading actors, they all have a story to tell and there is so much to learn from each one of them. I am loving the process so far; I never knew that I would enjoy acting so much. If the role and the script are interesting, I would definitely look into future projects as well.”

Arslan informed that presently he is in talks for some potential projects in the future but nothing is official as yet. He added, “I would like to take up acting projects simultaneously along with my YouTube career as digital media gives you the freedom of expression as a content creator. Also, my followers, who have been supporting me for so many years, deserve more of the digital content as well.”

Coming back to Arslan’s upcoming debut, he has finished about a month’s shoot but it hasn’t been completed yet. Everything is postponed for now, due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The team is hoping that the situation goes back to normal so that they can resume the shoot. These are extraordinarily challenging times we are living through; we can only hope that the shoot wraps up in time for Ramazan. Let’s wait and see!