Standing in a hotel lobby in Dubai, Ahmed Ali Butt noticed men swivelling round to look at him. Some ogled, some merely frowned curiously. “I told Nadeem Baig, my director [in the movie Jawani Phir Nahin Aani 2 (JPNA2)], that I now finally know how women feel when they are stared at,” says the actor.

This realisation dawned upon him because he was, at that point, impersonating a plump, bejewelled, makeup-laden, flashy aunty from London called Maina. “Maybe they were wondering if I was a man in drag or maybe they really did think that I was an overly made-up woman,” ponders Ahmed.

There is a chance that Ahmed truly did fool passers-by into thinking that he was a woman because once he became Maina, he looked like her utterly. The transformation required three hours of make-up everyday and a very detailed wardrobe and accessory selection. “Maina’s scenes were shot over a span of 29 days in the searing Dubai heat. It was painful, spending so much time getting make-up done and then waiting all day as shooting proceeded. It was also worth it. Vasay Chaudhry, who wrote the script for JPNA2, had told me from the very onset that he wanted me to enact a female character and it excited me because it would allow me to show my versatility.” says Butt.

“We made sure that we didn’t ridicule Maina in any way,” he continues. “She had to be elegant, heavily dressed up, loud-mouthed and sarcastic. She made fun of other people, not the other way round. The director Nadeem Baig, Vasay and I shut ourselves in a room and developed the character in detail. She was going to be one of the movie’s strongest comic factors, the surprise element that we didn’t even reveal in the trailer.”

Ahmed Ali Butt in drag has taken Pakistan by storm in Jawani Phir Nahin Aani 2. He explains what it was like being in a sari

The hard work seems to have paid off. JPNA2 is an all-out hit, continuing to rake in millions at the box office and, based on audience reviews, one of its strongest selling factors has been the coquettish, hilarious Maina. Swathed in flamboyant shalwar kameez and jewels, Maina was the quintessential desi aunty from Manchester, fabulously haughty, batting her fake eyelashes as she repeatedly ended her dialogues with an “innit?”. She had herself photoshopped into the royal wedding, was a whizz at caustic rejoinders and really knew how to shake a leg, making quite an entry with a Madhuri-like Didi tera deewar diwana.

Did Ahmed — and the JPNA2 team at large — expect the character to be such a hit? “Nadeem wanted the second half of the movie to revolve round the character to a large extent,” says Ahmed, “and he didn’t want to cut any of her scenes despite the fact that they extended the movie’s duration. There is a scene in which Sohail Ahmed bumps into her and makes a pass at her. We could have cut that out but Nadeem didn’t want to. In the song Lahore Teray Tay we actually decided to keep Maina on the sidelines because she was overshadowing Humayun [Saeed] and Kubra [Khan] although the primary focus was supposed to be on them.”

Although male actors enacting women are not an uncommon phenomenon, very few such characters have been big hits in local entertainment. Undoubtedly, Moin Akhtar as Rozy in the 1990 PTV remake of Tootsie has been the most memorable character in this genre so far in Pakistan. And yet, Ahmed was not troubled by becoming Maina. How did he plan out her various mannerisms?

“I brainstormed quite a bit with the cast and crew of the film and with my wife. There’s a bit of Rozy there, a bit of the desi London aunty there, a bit of the intrusive phuppi that everyone hates and quite a bit of my grandmother Madam Noor Jehan. When Maina wears a sari in one of the scenes, she had a flower in her hair and moved her hands just the way Naano did back in the PTV era.

“Probably the most embarrassing part about playing the character was buying her wardrobe. I would hit the stores with my stylist and she would have to repetitively tell the staff that these clothes are for me, not her! Then, when I would go into the changing room, the shop staff would tell me to knock thrice before coming out so that the other women would have left. It was quite an experience!” he laughs.

Next up for Ahmed is a role in Asim Raza’s upcoming Paray Hut Love which will also star Sheheryar Munawar and Maya Ali. He’s also planning a movie revolving round Inspector Khoji, the comic detective that he had played in a TV series back in 2015. “There was a time when plots would revolve round comic actors such as Nanha, Ali Ejaz and Munawar Zareef. I want to work on reviving that trend,” he says.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 23rd, 2018