When Farhan Ali Agha made his TV debut 30-odd years ago, he was immediately cast as the hero. Tall, fair, well-built, with a modelling background, he had the kind of good looks that had heads turning. He simply skipped out on playing the hero’s best friend or the ordinary brother and immediately got cast as the main romantic lead.   

Now, though, Farhan has progressed to playing the patriarch in dramas and sometimes, film. The good looks are still very much there and he is ageing slowly, gracefully. It is only inevitable, though, that Farhan is now the good-looking father rather than the protagonist. Forehead creased, eyes crinkled with worry, you’re likely to see him on TV making wise observations and fretting over the fate of his offspring.

For instance, in the sensationally popular Tere Bin, which is currently on air, Farhan is the adoptive father of a tempestuous Yumna Zaidi. He is perpetually distraught, trying to make her see sense — which she has refused to do so far.

There are many more recent popular dramas that have featured Farhan in memorable roles. In last year’s Ramazan hit, Hum Tum, for instance, he played the lazy, whiny patriarch constantly trying to mooch off money from his family. A year earlier, in another Ramazan drama, Chupke Chupke, he was the penny-pinching father constantly trying to cut corners. In the Ramazan cult favourite Suno Chanda, he’s Farhan Saeed’s father, his loyalties divided between his volatile, smart-tongued wife and flirtatious old flame.

One-time Mr Karachi, the handsome Farhan Ali Agha set out in showbiz as a model and then actor some three decades ago and has now transitioned to fatherly character roles. What’s the secret to his longevity? Andwhere does he think he’ll go next?

When I meet Farhan he tells me that he is far more busy now, playing the many avatars of an on-screen father, than when he was back in his 30s, when he was enacting the romantic hero. Our meeting, in fact, takes place over the weekend, particularly because of Farhan’s busy schedule. He’s dividing his time between five different dramas and shooting times tend to go from morning till 10 in the night. A detailed interview during the week is next to impossible.

The practical point of view

On the weekend, though, Farhan is relaxed. I ask him the routine question: you’re happy with just playing patriarchal roles?

“Financially, yes,” he says. “Also, I am realistic. I know that TV dramas follow certain storylines. Producers are primarily concerned with quickly making dramas and airing them. Actors become similarly focused. We want to wrap up one project and move on to the next. If you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. I can’t sit around waiting for particular kinds of roles to come my way. My top priority is to do as many roles as I can.”

Still, I insist, deep down does he want to perform certain kinds of roles that don’t come his way because of the limitations of the Pakistani TV drama?

He shakes his head. “I don’t think like that. There was a time when I would struggle to get good roles but, now, even though I may be playing paternal roles, I don’t get stereotyped. Sometimes my character is comical, sometimes serious, or difficult. I always make sure that my character has some significance in the overall story.”

Farhan continues, “I also look at a character logically: will it require me to change my appearance or travel and because of this will I end up losing out on other work? Recently, I was offered a role where my character would have to look a certain way for a certain time-span and I would have had to shoot outside of Karachi. I refused. It wasn’t worth it. I would have had lost out on so many other opportunities because of that one role. There are other times when I deliberately opt for a role that requires less scenes because I want to take it easy.”

I observe that it doesn’t seem like he’s taking it all that easy, working in five different dramas simultaneously. Don’t the characters get mixed up in his head when he goes from one shooting spell to another?

“I’ll be honest, for the past many years, I haven’t read a script!” he confesses. “I just ask to be told about my character and if it makes sense to me, I sign on. I have now been working for so many years that I have all these characters within me and I just need to connect with a certain mood and I can bring a role to life. It always takes some time, a few days of shooting, to get into the skin of a character. You figure out the body language and the facial expressions.

“Also, I don’t know if I should say this is an interview but, sometimes, I come on set and ask the crew what my character is!” he laughs. “We do so many roles that we can sometimes get confused. Still, once I know what I have to do, I make sure I do justice to it.

“You can see it for yourself — there are so many characters that I have played that people have loved. There is a huge difference between how I perform now and the way that I acted back when I started out. For me, acting has been an acquired skill.

“Also, I am a director’s actor. If a director wants to extract a certain kind of performance from me, I will happily do so. Otherwise, I will just go with the flow and play the character the way I envision it.”

Highs and lows

What character of his are people talking about the most right now? “I think, my character in Tere Bin, because the drama has become such a huge hit,” he says.

Did he anticipate that the drama could become such a colossal success back when it was being shot?

He replies: “I knew that the drama’s story was good but I didn’t know that it would become such a big hit. You can never know while shooting. There are scenes that are being shot in bits and pieces, sometimes locations are being ‘cheated’ and the cast’s dates are constantly being managed. It’s only once the entire drama comes together that you realise that the right ingredients were all put into it and it’s really something special.”

I’ll be honest, for the past many years, I haven’t read a script!” he confesses. “I just ask to be told about my character and if it makes sense to me, I sign on. I have now been working for so many years that I have all these characters within me and I just need to connect with a certain mood and I can bring a role to life.”

I ask an off-topic question — but one that is reigning in the minds of Tere Bin’s avid fan following: are people asking him whether the drama will have a happy ending or a sad one?

“They’re constantly asking me that!” Farhan laughs. “And I have my answer ready for them, too. I tell them that everyone has different scenes and lines and, so, even I don’t know how it will end.”

What recent character of his did he himself like the most? “I liked playing the forgetful, loser father in Hum Tum,” he says referring to the character he enacted last year. “I am not insecure about myself at all and I think that that’s very important in this field. In Hum Tum, my character would have his shirt tucked out, his hair standing and I would just be enjoying myself. He was an irritating character, but also funny. There is a special way of delivering comic lines. It’s all about timing — how fast you say your lines and when you deliver them.”

Does acting on TV pay better now, compared to back when he first started out?

“Of course, it does,” he says. “Back in 2001, when I was getting married, I remember my father-in-law asking me if I was going to pursue a career other than acting. Back then, acting and modelling weren’t considered lucrative. Adnan Siddiqui, Humayun Saeed, Aijazz Aslam and I, we all started our careers around the same time, and I remember how we had all felt a sense of achievement when we bought our first cars. Now, I feel that if young actors are level-headed and professional, they can easily maintain very comfortable lifestyles.”

So payment doesn’t come late? I mention a complaint that is often cited by actors. Farhan muses, “It may still come late. You basically have to know the tricks of the trade. You need to know exactly who to reach out to in order to get your pay on time. I have a reputation for always fulfilling my commitments. People appreciate that and my payments tend to come through.”

Tricks of the trade

Farhan goes on to mention other policies that he has while at work — he calls them ‘tricks of the trade’.

“I go on time, I come back on time,” he says. “I have a saying on the set of a shoot ‘Raat dus bajay ke baad Cinderella ke jootay change ho jaatay hain [Cinderella’s shoes change after 10pm]’. I am going to wrap up my work at 10pm, so if a scene is going to take long to shoot, then they shouldn’t begin working on it around that time. If other people are interested in working late, they can stay on and continue to shoot, but I’ll be heading back home.”

What if his co-actors — some of them are leading stars notorious for their abysmal time management — turn up late, leading to delays? “I coordinate with the team on set,” Farhan smiles. “I make sure that I am only called to the shoot once everything is ready.”

He continues, “Also, drama shoots of weddings and other such events tend to take place till late in the night. In such cases, I make sure that the scenes are either shot on the weekend or the next day’s shoot are also dedicated for the same project. I can’t work till late on one set and then end up coming late the next day for some other drama.”

Do producers and directors agree to his terms and conditions? “Of course they do. If your requests are logical, then they have to agree.”

I discover that there are also other ‘logical’, sensible aspects to Farhan Ali Agha’s life. For instance, he avidly follows a regular fitness regime. He works out regularly, keeps a check on his diet and is famous for occasionally walking all the way to a shoot.

“Sometimes when I feel that I haven’t been able to exercise, I just walk to work,” he tells me. “There was this one time when I had an accident and my hand was in a sling and I decided that I would have to walk to the shoot site in order to maintain my weight. I even sometimes leave home and walk in the pitch dark for hours.”

How do you do that in a city like Karachi, infamous for street crime? “I don’t carry my cell phone with me,” he smiles and shrugs.

“I have always been very particular about maintaining my weight. Before I started modelling and then acting, I used to body-build. I even won the title of Mr Karachi in the late ’80s.”

Did he always have a lot of female fans, I probe. There are stories on the internet about how he used to once live opposite a girls’ college which led to frequent ‘inconveniences’. He grins, I think, bashfully. “Yes, there would be difficulties.”

And then? “I really haven’t ever had any difficulty getting people’s attention,” he concedes and then changes tack. “My sons are all grown up now, my career keeps me very busy…”

Would he be happy if his sons also decided to pursue careers in acting? “It will be their choice,” he says. “The thing is, in this career you can’t be sure if you’ll be able to sustain. There is no degree that guarantees you a job. You’re always dependent on a phone call to come through and offer you a job. Where I have succeeded, 50 others have not. I might ask my children if they are willing to take a chance with a profession like this.”

What is his five year plan with his career? “The plan is, there is no plan!” he says. “I have always been very professional and I intend to keep being that way. Also, in a career like this, a lot simply depends on luck.”

But one day, his acting career may not be as busy as it is today. What will he do then? “There are so many other things to do…” his voice trails off.

Like delve into politics? I ask.

Farhan is, of course, already associated with a political party but, on his request, I had kept the focus of our conversation on his acting career. Still, I am curious to know if, one day, I’ll end up seeing him making long speeches on election-day. He replies, “Yes, I have always been inclined towards matters of national interest. If I can, I will help Pakistan however I can.”

And does he, in these dark times, still hold hope for Pakistan? “There is always hope,” he says. “We can’t think like that. Countries go through difficulties but we can never deny that whatever we have today, it is because of our country.

“Anywhere I go in the world, people have seen my work, they appreciate it, they talk to me about it. I have gotten all this because of the work that I have done in my country. And whenever I get the chance, I will always try to do what I can for the people of Pakistan.”

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 7th, 2023