I read something on twitter about how an actor's social circle plays a big role in them being considered a star in Pakistan. Like they said that actors like ahad,fawad and mahira know how to carry themselves in the public eye and are considered classy lending to their star power and how most young actors aren't from the elite class and don't have any backing either. So I have two questions can you explain who is considered elite/burger? etc in Pakistan and what role does social standing play in future of actors.

oh most definitely! see social class plays a big part in how many opportunities an individual gets in their lives. people from the privileged upper class living in one of the already few developed cities of the country will have access to the kind of options right from their foundational years that people belonging to middle / lower class people living in the underdeveloped cities would get to be aware of after they graduate high school if they are lucky enough. this already changes the starting line for the people. and even WITHIN the more developed cities the social class difference affects how an individual is groomed. for example, Mahira when she started as a VJ was already well spoken and had good communication skills owing to the kind of education she recieved. compared to someone like Sajal Aly who started in the industry very young and without having a proper education. if you'd just compare their debut years you can see the zameen aasman ka faraq in how the two carried and presented themselves.

to become a 'star' one needs to know the right people in the right places. and those places are very exclusive and hard for outsiders to get into. cuz stars are made. there's more to them than just their acting. there's a whole brand value they have which is meticulously created and perfected by an entire team working behind the scenes, often way before they even enter the industry. younger actors who come in the industry not knowing the right doors to knock have to wait for YEARS to be noticed by these 'star makers'. and there are also unfortunate cases of them falling in the hands of the 'wrong' mentors who just don't know how to make a star out of an actor. case in point Yumna Zaidi. the girl has been a brilliant actor since her debut year. it's only NOW she's being praised for being a star because it's only NOW she got to work with a team that's putting her in the right places and marketing her as more than just an actor known for doing serious dramas. i don't remember Yumna being so largely fangirled over her beauty the way I am seeing now. also I guess this ask was prompted by the Hamza vs Sehar post-Fairytale discourse happening on twt where Hamza is getting all the headlines and Sehar is just an afterthought despite both of them being headliners of the show. it's quite simple isn't it? Hamza knows the people in the right places. Sehar doesn't have that access. Hamza is able to turn the spark into a flame cuz he knows the right people to fan the spark. Sehar's spark will be extinguished with time if she doesn't get hold of the right fan.

one has to understand that in Pakistan the acting, especially the Lollywood industry, is not considered one for the "respectable" families. so forget anyone aspiring to become a star grooming themselves from early on, their first struggle is just to get the support from their families to pursue this as a career. sure times have changed now with more outsiders being able to make this a respectable career choice but the age old notions about this industry are still deeply entrenched in the minds of majority. the 'elite' class have no such notions because their social status protects them from a LOT of shit. it's all just connected. a person who has acting as a career that runs their household just will not have the same priorities as someone who doesn't have to worry about the financial aspect of it all. to become a 'star' lots has to be invested in it and it's not something an individual can afford on their own without strong backing.

Nepotism in Pakistan is rampant no matter where you look. one's parents or uncles or aunts or cousins etc will help get in a good word for someone at the right time in the right place just to get them through the door. cuz we are a very "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours" society. it's neither good nor bad, it's just how we live.

Hey Mais so I'm curious to know what the public perception on the hocane sisters is like (I'm new to Pak dramas). I previously saw a lot of twts/videos trolling them but I don't get why they were being trolled in the first place? Did something specific happen? However recently videos of Marwa and urwa discussing marital rape, messaging via dramas etc making the rounds on twitter. Suddenly everyone is praising them. Goes to show how fickle people are I guess. Also off topic was Farhan popular pre mere humsafar?

well yeah people are fickle especially when it comes to how they treat celebrities. the Hocane sisters started in the industry when they were still teenagers if I am not wrong? and they just did some things which people deemed troll worthy (starting from changing their spellings from Hussain to Hocane). more than Urwa, Mawra was trolled because of the tweets she made back when she was young. the girl was an unabashed Ranbir Kapoor fangirl and used to advocate for the Pak-India peaceful relationships which people thought was just her trying to keep her career in Bollywood going. so yeah..nothing astounding. the usual thing that happens to most celebs that dare to be themselves on social media. and if i am not wrong I think Mawra was the first (?) social media savvy person? like i remember her her flaunting her insta followers in a time when not everyone was on the app or if they were, didn't have the kind of following. so that also added to the trolling that Mawra relied on her social media presence to bag projects more than her acting abilities. Urwa has generally been less trolled than her sister.

yes, Farhan has been popular before Mere Humsafar both as a singer and as an actor.

Outsiders even have to battle judgment within the industry I feel. I noticed that in the fashion world where ex-models like ZQ and Nadia Hussain said "We came from good families, we did modeling for fun, but then things changed when girls started modeling to run a household, and you know they'll do ANYTHING for money" In the drama world a version of that is judging actors for script choices where as Maya said we dunno what their finl situation is like & what they have to do to make ends meet.

exactly.

Mais! I just started watching Aunn Zara. For the first time! Nobody prepared me for how cute fetus Obi and Maya were 😭😭😭

OMG YESSS!! you gonna love it!! it's so hilarious and wholesome and the OsMaya chemistry is just *chef kiss* like plsss the comfort and trust they have on each other to do the kind of scenes they did in AZ.. I haven't seen anyone else do!

Sorry imma couple of days late! Breakdown of the Kim and Daood scenes for this week please?

(heylo..I hope all is well at your end!)

It was a decent episode. not a LOT of KimDawood content but enough to know where they stand in this relationship. Dawood, bless that fool, said and didn't say a lot of words just to mean that he was jealous of Kim's relationship with Zulfi xD am I wrong to interpret this as jealousy? the man saw Kim, his would be wife, ditch her own mehendi ceremony to personally go invite Zulfi for her wedding. then he had to witness Kim fully disregard his "warning" to not step out of the house without being escorted by him. THEN he had to bear Kim defending Zulfi and being a-okay about Zulfi's financial condition and thus, again dismissing Dawood's so-called valid concern that Zulfi took her out for lunch at a sub-standard place. like...Kim has done more with/for Zulfi than she has done with/for Dawood and I can't imagine a desi mard like Dawood being okay with it. i am not saying he thinks there's anything illicit going on between the two but c'mon..Dawood most definitely IS jealous/insecure of Kim's proximity with Zulfi.

I really don't think Dawood won any rounds in this episode. Kim was throwing one bomb after another in the car ride afterwards. gotta say i LOVED how Maya acted in the scene. the insult Kim felt at being treated like an object by these two men..the rage she was feeling in that moment and trying her best to not let it get the best of her..the way her eyes were sparkling with tears but she didn't let them escape..it was just all so wonderfully portrayed and captured. Kim YET AGAIN exposed Dawood's hypocrisy that he is only concerned with imposing his decisions on his wife but doesn't spare the same energies on his father or brother because he KNOWS he has no control over them. no son can overrule his father's decisions. working elder brothers don't always have the energy to deal with unruly younger brothers beyond reprimanding them occasionally (but not investing any time to make sure the reprimands bear a positive change). but with Kim he keeps bringing up the "you're my wife" reminder because that, in his head, gives him a higher "authority" over her that he has seen happen all around him all his life. the whole "mard ki aurat pe bartari" logic that gets legitimized when a man and woman get married to each other. Kim, love of my life, firmly reminds him that his superiority BS won't work on her because she doesn't depend on him for security that she'd have no choice but to give in to his whims and demands as most of the women in marriages do.

I was thinking this other day and idk if I tweeted or posted about it but..Kim in her marriage with Dawood is a very clear example of how much patriarchy as a concept works solely on the oppression of women. you give women a decent amount of power and autonomy and a LOTTTT if not all of patriarchal concepts get shattered. Kim is not like Razia or Iqbal or Suraiya. her identity is not constantly tied or and defined by the relationship she shares with any men. her "liberal" way of living has given her the chance to own her agency. which is why she can stay mad at her father. which is why she can firmly make conditions of how she wants her marriage with Dawood to be. which is why she's the only one who can question Dada's rulings. because she isn't scared that offending any of these men will have an irreparable impact on HER life. Kim never crosses the boundary of respect or decency when she questions. she doesn't have to. she's just so highly secure in her life as just being KIM that she knows that if her justified questions fall on deaf ears and this environment she's living in becomes too suffocating for her..she can easily walk out and no one will have any power or authority over her to stop her. the thing is Kim is, so far, CHOOSING to stay here because there's still something here holding here. be it her growing feelings for Dawood or the companionship she's finding in Suraiya, Iqbal, and Zulfi. that's the mark of a relationship's beauty I feel. that a person, who has the choice to leave, CHOOSES to stay. not because they HAVE to but because they WANT to. i feel Kim, ultimately, would WANT to stay back. but for that to happen Dawood still has a LONG way to go.

Dawood is getting influenced by Kim at least enough for him to take the first step of standing up to Dada. yeah it's a weak step cuz his obedience (which is a flaw of his let's be real) doesn't allow him to counter-argue with Dada. Kim kardeti argue. but Dawood was silenced when Dada gave a very weak reasoning about why Suraiya wouldn't object to the marriage and why there's not even a NEED to ask for her marzi. "main uska Wali hoon..kuch gair-sharai' kaam nahin horaha". Again..patriarchy empowered through women's oppression. cuz the religion very STRICTLY says that the consent lies SOLELY on the individual in matters related to marriage. a no IS a no and no wali has the power to veto it.

the preview for next week is a little scary ngl. Kim has her heart in the right place but she doesn't have patience to deal with things without blowing up a few buildings along the way. although i must say TWICE In this episode she shielded Suraiya from unwanted interrogation so Kim is also learning the art of navigating complex situations. she's still a beginner though so she has a long way to go to perfect it xD i am happy that Suraiya's issue is out and there's no dragging it. also, I feel it's gonna be Dawood who'll ultimately take a step for his sister and fight for her right. and maybe that will be the catalyst for Kim truly falling for him. oh she KNOWS she's attracted to him and she isn't entirely unhappy with him but Dawood's tendency to stay silent in matters that demand him to speak up make Kim not really respect him. she's always lowkey mad at him for not refusing to the marriage when he KNEW he didn't like her. she's now highkey mad that he's not fighting for her sister's right to marry the guy of her choice. if the show truly intends to show via Dawood&Kim's relationship of how these two people from two completely different worlds can come together and learn from each other to make lay foundation of a whole new world where both their previous worlds can peacefully coexist..NOW is the best time to show that.

P.S - how freakin' glorious was Kim being all "ab main itni achi bhi nahin hoon ke apki har baat manun." to Razia xD the way I laughed! i love love LOVEEE whenever Maya does these cheeky scenes. there's this innocence in her sass that's never badtameez. gaaah Kim has really become my top3 fav Maya Ali characters and the show isn't over yet! nazar na lag jaye bass!!

any dramas youve watched recently that are good? havent watched a drama in forever i feel most current programming is so stale 😭 all melodramas look like humsafar knockoffs and all family dramas are suno chanda-esque but not as funny… ill take any recs i can get lol (also do u have twitter in case yeh phir se ban kr dein lol)

recently? nope. nothing keeps my interest all the way through least of all desi dramas. currently I am only invested in Yunhi but keeping it lowkey (by my standards). i was into Mohabbat Gumshuda Meri for the cute chemistry but there's too much stupidity in the script for it to really get me hooked. Pyari Mona disappointed me cuz of its weak execution. Tere Bin ki toh baat hi na karo. Mujhe Pyaar Hua That oh lost me before the first epi was even over xD what else is even on-air currently? my mind is in nostalgia mode right now and I'd rather watch some old favorites than waste time investing in anything new. kuch aisa HIT nahin karraha dil ko ke banda uss pe zyada time de. maybe go through my dramarecs tag?? idk if you'll find something there even.

Mais can you recommend some underrated solid romance driven Pak shows? I've watch most of the mainstream ones. TIA! Also I'm already watching yunhi in case you were gonna rec that.

ek toh "romance driven" already narrows down the field SO much which is necessarily not a good thing for me cuz i haven't watched a lot of Pakistani dramas to begin with. also I feel like nowadays the definition of "romance" has changed. it's a fairly new wave of dramas that actually show the physical intimacy aspect of romance in PakDramas. otherwise the older PakDramas wouldn't necessarily have such things (and the ones they did unn pe Pemra ban laga deta tha xD). ab toh if anyone says "romance drama" toh I immediately think they are asking for something like Tere Bin which...bhayee aisa yahan aur koi product nahin hai.

KHAIRRR. some of the "romances" that I have enjoyed in PakDramas I can list in no particular order.

filhaal can't think of any other. kuch yaad aya toh will post.