“I am bored of playing the good guy in TV dramas,” Aagha Ali tells me. “All you have to do is look good, wear good clothes, go to the office, come back home and get manipulated by the women in your house. You have to act possessive and grill the women in your house suspiciously. Then, finally, in the last episode, you understand that you were wrong, cry and ask for forgiveness.”

He has a point, describing the typical TV drama hero to the tee. It’s a repetitive role, a predictable one, albeit extremely popular with the masses. And Aagha should know. Over the past six years, he tells me, he has acted in leading roles in about 60 dramas. That’s a lot of good guys — and also plenty of bad ones.

So you enjoy playing negative roles more, I ask him?

“I find offbeat roles more interesting and, yes, I enjoy playing the anti-hero,” he agrees.

Television actor Aagha Ali has a lot of minor scandals floating around about him — that he has anger management issues, that he’s disrespectful, that his marriage is on the rocks. But could it be all because he does such a good job portraying negative characters on screen? And why does he prefer them to playing good guys?

Referring to his recent drama with 7th Sky Entertainment, Zakhm, where his character is diabolical to the core, he continues, “The drama had got delayed and 7th Sky offered me a role in another project in the meantime. I refused. I wanted to wait for this role.”

Doesn’t he worry that he may have to endure a backlash from the audience, should the role be a success? “I’d like them to love to hate me! I got my first break by playing a negative character. My main concern is that I should not be forgettable.”

I tell Aagha that he’s possibly been a bit too believable while being villainous on TV. A quick Google search of him reveals little controversial snippets — online magazines relishing how he ‘fat-shamed’ his wife while attending host Nida Yasir’s morning show; conjecture over whether he and his wife, actress Hina Altaf, are happy together; short fluff pieces hinting at how he has anger problems, which led to his past relationships failing, etc etc etc.

Sitting across from Aagha in a busy coffee shop in Karachi, though, he doesn’t strike me as the angry, brash young man.

“And I am not!” Aagha professes. “It’s just that some of my most successful roles have been negative ones. People assume that I am like that in real life too. I have started taking a stand when it comes to some aspects of a drama script. I am no longer willing to show myself slapping a woman on TV.

“In one of my most successful dramas to date, Band Khirrkiyaan, I play a possessive, psychotic man who, at one point, slaps the woman that he is obsessed with. When I saw that drama, I realised that the character could no longer be the hero in the story once he had slapped a woman. His obsession was no longer justifiable. It was wrong.

“But just because I play negative roles, doesn’t mean that I have anger issues. There is so much that gets misinterpreted.”

It runs in the family

We talk more about that later. At this initial point in our conversation, I want to know more about Aagha’s career, which may span less than a decade but has firmly established him amongst today’s young lot of TV actors.

He is, of course, the son of renowned character actor Agha Sikandar. The acting germ, in fact, runs quite rampantly throughout Aagha’s family tree: his brother Ali Sikandar is a writer/actor, his maternal uncle Waseem Abbas is a well-respected veteran, his cousin Ali Abbas is also an actor, and singer-and-sometimes-actor Ali Azmat is his mother’s cousin.

“I don’t recall ever not wanting to be an actor,” reminisces Aagha. “My father passed away too soon, when I was six years old, but I still remember glimpses of him sitting in the lounge, poring over his scripts while the rest of us did whatever we felt like doing. He would sit there, murmuring his dialogues and making expressions and I would be riveted. From childhood, this was the profession that I wanted for myself.”

A stint as a host on a magazine show for the channel ATV first put him in the limelight. He proceeded to dabble with theatre and the occasional dramas that came his way, eventually moving to Karachi from his hometown Lahore because, as he describes, “all the work is in Karachi”.

“I struggled for years until I got my first big break in 2013, when I was offered a role by director Kashif Nisar,” says Aagha. “After that, I just went on a script-signing spree!”

Acting can be a tough job, though. Some of his peers have even described it as mazdoori [hard labour for daily wages], implying that an actor does not earn a consistent salary and earnings only keep coming through as long as he or she is working on a project. Once the work is over, revenue comes to a standstill until the next acting role, whenever that may be. Does he agree with this assessment?

“Yes and, moreover, you have to be discerning about what project to labour over,” Aagha points out. “You can’t just sign on to anything and everything. You have to be careful about how you build your career.

“It’s particularly difficult right now,” he observes. “About 10 years ago, there were a lot of private production houses making dramas, so actors had a lot of projects to choose from. Around 2018, we heard that certain taxes were being levied on the industry and most of the production houses shut down.

“Now, almost all dramas are being produced by channels [themselves]. It leaves us with limited choices and there are many who can’t survive in the face of the favouritism that is so prevalent. Also, nowadays one drama is aired two or three times a week. That leaves us with even less options!

“There were so many young actors who started around the same time as me who have now just vanished. Those of us who have work, are often shooting episodes while the drama is already on air. Soaps get aired daily and other dramas get aired more than once in a week, so there is always this mad rush to wrap up more episodes.”

The big bad world of acting

Has he ever been a victim of favouritism himself? He smiles wanly. “I recently read a news clip in an Urdu newspaper about myself, which basically said that I miss out on a lot of acting opportunities because I don’t have friends in the industry.”

And is that true, I ask him. “Absolutely,” he says. “For one, I don’t like mixing business with friendship. I wouldn’t want to run after a friend for payment if a paycheque gets delayed. Also, I don’t feel that I need to maintain friendships in order to get drama offers. My work is out there for everyone to see. People know what I look like and how I act. If they feel that I am worthy of a role, they can approach me.

“Back in 2014, when I had finally been noticed by the industry, I signed on to seven serials. I was working constantly, sometimes shooting for three dramas in a day, running from one location to the other. I have psoriasis, so I also had to take out time to apply ointments to my skin. Karachi was a new city for me and I was living at a guest house. In the midst of all this, a very important person from a channel reached out to me, asking me to meet him in the afternoon.

“I told him that my schedule was packed and asked him if we could meet later in the night once I was done or, he could just come to my set location. Even though my reasons were genuine, I was evidently considered disrespectful. There were many others who had the time to go and meet this person and they got offered movies and major dramas.”

Does he now regret having latched on to the big bad nepotistic world of acting? “No. I would be sad or regretful if other actors were getting offered different roles from what I am getting,” he says pragmatically. “But the storylines of all dramas are more or less the same. All actors have dilemmas similar to mine.”

So he obviously hasn’t played the role of his dreams yet, I probe.

“No,” he admits. “Perhaps my career isn’t as great as I would want it to be. I am probably not one of the highest paid actors in the industry and I have stopped believing in awards ever since I personally experienced how they have no credibility. Having said this, people do notice my work.

“As far as the role of my dreams is concerned, it probably won’t be for a TV drama since all those roles are the same! It’ll have to be for film. So far, I have only rejected films, but I love the commercial side to cinema. I love dancing, singing, performing. When I work in the movies, perhaps my dream role will be realised,” he smiles.

Television may have its politics and its staid storylines, but does it pay well? Also, when a drama is extended through dragged out episodes, does he get paid additionally for that?

“TV does pay well for me,” says Aagha. “As actors, we get enlisted to work on a shoot for a certain number of days. If the drama turns out to be a success, the makers immediately drag it out by a few additional episodes. I don’t mind, because I have been paid for the specific days that I had been hired for. Besides, if the drama is being extended, it means that it’s a success and I am being seen on TV for a month more.

“There’s no one like the production house 7th Sky Entertainment when it comes to professionalism and timely payments,” he adds. “When my drama with them [Zakhm] got delayed by about three months, I had already set aside my dates for it. Even though I was yet to come on set, I was paid for those three months. No one else does that!

“There have been times when I have come on set and worked for six days and then the project got cancelled for some reason or the other. There is no pay for those six days lost. In fact, the production house is lamenting over the money that it has lost in those days and you don’t even feel like asking for your remuneration.”

Clearing the air

He and wife Hina Altaf recently sidled away from acting and hosted a show for Aaj Entertainment TV called The Couple Show. As the title suggests, the show involved Aagha and Hina — a newly married celebrity couple — inviting other famous couples for a conversation and a ‘rapid fire’ round, which stirred up quite a few controversies.

“It’s rare to have a show of your own and we did quite well,” says Aagha. “People are really interested in the personal lives of celebrity couples, of what they do once a shoot is over. The concept itself was so attractive that the show was bound to be a success.

“I did sometimes get irritated at how just the rapid fire comments of celebrities would particularly make social media headlines,” he shrugs.

I point out to him that those comments were usually mean observations about other celebrities. Doesn’t he think that some of his guests must have made these comments intentionally, in order to get attention? Aagha mulls over this.

“The round involved us asking our guests random questions, such as ‘What advice would you give to so-and-so celebrity?’ The answer could be as simple as the person should wear more of a certain colour or it could be a cruel jibe about that person’s career or appearance. The show itself could not be blamed. Still, I don’t think that our guests made these comments on purpose. We’re all human. Sometimes, in the flow of conversation, we say things that we don’t realise could be controversial.”

Aagha speaks from experience. Recently, in Nida Yasir’s morning show on ARY Digital, Hina had revealed that Aagha had told her to never get ‘fat’. Allegations of how he was ‘fat-shaming’ his wife had ensued.

“All I meant was that I want her to always stay fit,” he exclaims. “Don’t we tell our friends to stay healthy? Both Hina and I have struggled with our weights. There was a time when we were both overweight and, back when we first met, we would often discuss our weight loss journeys. That’s all that Hina had meant. She said what she said laughingly and people decided to take offence.”

Addressing the rumours about his marriage not being successful, he continues, “I just don’t like putting up too many personal pictures of me and my wife. The only times when I post our pictures together on Instagram is on Eid, or when we are on holiday.

“It’s because I don’t want to make my personal life public. When you do that, you give people the right to comment. They may be positive sometimes, but they will also troll you and lines will get crossed. People assume that an actor is only a good husband if he frequently posts about his married life. Why should I? I am very happily married — even though I have read at least four news items on social media declaring that Hina and I are separating!”

He continues: “Besides, any picture that I put up of Hina and me has to be approved by her. I once uploaded a picture on my Instagram of the two of us which I thought was nice. As soon as she saw it, I got a long message from her, asking me to remove it because there was evidently not enough light on her face! Now I check with her before posting,” he smiles.

It is often said that two actors can’t be married. The demands and the insecurities involved in the profession can take a toll on the relationship. Does Aagha agree?

“No, I feel very happy that my wife is doing what she loves,” he says. “Only recently, I was home for three days while Hina had to shoot. I worked out and relaxed the first day. On the second day, I started getting bored and called over a friend. By the third day I was utterly frustrated. Sitting alone at home can be nerve-wracking. If I find it difficult to do, why should I expect my wife to do it?

“When we got married, there were people who actually asked me if I would allow my wife to work,” he says. “I found that appalling. You’re marrying someone, you’re not buying him or her.

“Hina is very young and this is her time to flourish. She is very proud of the money that she earns and she spends it the way she wants to spend it. She is a happy person at home rather than someone who is waiting for me to turn up while I work long hours.

“It’s actually great that we’re both actors. I usually know the people that she’s working with and, if I can’t reach her on her phone, I just contact someone else who’s on set with her and leave a message.”

What of the rumours that he has anger management issues? “They’re not true!” he shakes his head. “I have a very happy personal life. I cook, I spend time with family and friends, I try to go back to Lahore frequently to be with my mother, and I am trying to balance my acting commitments with a singing career. I am not what I portray on TV!”

Singing for him is a passion, he says. “I try to balance both my acting and musical careers, but it is difficult. Even if you manage to compose a song, you have to spend hours in the studio recording it, then making a video and marketing it. It’s a big commitment. I’d have to leave acting if I ever wanted to really concentrate on it.”

Aagha is far from leaving acting right now, but he is planning to release an album next year, bringing out music videos one after the other. He performs in concerts sporadically, the most recent one having taken place at Port Grand in Karachi. “I also have a drama in the pipeline for ARY Digital which co-stars Affan Waheed,” he says.

We come full circle to the conversation that we had started out with: is he playing the bad guy in the drama or the good one? “The bad guy,” he grins. “I found him very interesting.”

But don’t get fooled by Aagha Ali as he sneers, stalks and plots evil schemes on TV. All it proves is that he’s a good actor. He’s also a good guy, really.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 16th, 2022