When someone has been part of an industry for a long time, it’s not surprising that they should have a treasure of observation and insight on it. But, you may wonder, Yasir Hussain just began his career in theatre. Pawnay 14 August went onstage over a year back, and he’s since done Aangan Terrha and Sawa 14 August. Hugely successful plays for sure, but that doesn’t exactly mean Yasir is a veteran, does it?

He may not be a theatre vet, but Yasir Hussain has been slowly making his way on to the stage for over a decade. “Eleven years,” says Yasir. “My first play was 11 years ago, produced by a place called Taraash with Hunerkada.” It may have been the beginning of the success Yasir has only recently begun to enjoy, but it wasn’t the most dynamic play or role. Yasir recalls without the merest hint of bitterness, “I was playing a corpse — I had to lay on stage wearing a shroud, but because the lighting was all manual (switched on and off by hand) I ended up walking on stage ready to lie down only to be flooded in lights!” The stage technician had turned the lights on a moment too soon.

If you, like thousands of Pakistanis, have been taken with how great Yasir’s timing is or how he seems to just melt from one character to another, it’s probably this first play we can credit it all to. From that first role of the accidentally walking corpse, Yasir went on to do a lot of theatre and street theatre for various NGOs, travelling to far-flung areas to perform. His first commercial break came when he was cast in Shah Sharahbeel’s version of The Phantom of the Opera, where he played one of the sculptures in the background, and put together a backdrop for the stage. Set design, he says, is something he enjoys, learning what he did during his street theatre days.

His next commercial venture was with Dawar Mehmood. Dawar wanted Yasir to direct Come Again, the 2009 play that gained Kopykats Productions initial attention. What Yasir offered though was to just help out — then came Usama Kazi’s It Runs in the Family, which Yashir choreographed. “There was this weird trend in Islamabad to keep people from Rawalpindi away from the main group,” Yasir says. “And that’s where I came from. The jobs and roles — tiny ones — that someone else wouldn’t do were handed over to the Pindi crew. Aangan Terrha changed everything.”

“I didn’t think I could do it,” admits Yasir. “I had never done more than a bit part.” But Yasir’s Sweetie in Bombay Dreams had been quite a hit, and he was in 2011’s Sabz. “Credit goes to Dawar, of course. He explained what I needed to do as if I were a child. And when an actor has maybe six lines onstage, he better make them count. Instead of standing around like a dummy, I’d try to act with my gestures and expressions.”

By the time Sawa 14 August came around, Yasir had just come out of 150 shows of Aangan Terrha and didn’t feel he could deal with being onstage the whole time. “I was offered Bhutto’s character, who is one of the main ones. The bigger the character, the more it has to be able to carry the whole play.” So Yasir begged off this time, asking for two small characters instead. “I love doing smaller roles,” he says, “maybe I’m just used to doing them.”

Yasir caught Pakistan’s attention with his portrayal of Akbar in Aangan Terrha. The show had a run of over 100 days in Karachi alone, and while a big part of the pull was the revived classic by Anwar Maqsood’s pen, it was also because Akbar quickly became beloved by audiences. With Sawa 14 August, Yasir endears himself (or his characters to those who watch him) as a poetic Pathan and a very lively Sindhi.

Modestly, or extremely honestly, Yasir says he just tries to understand what his character is about, what its limitations are and gets a feel for his dialogue, rather than learning it. “I’ve grown this mustache for my character in Sawa 14 August, so when I’m playing the Sindhi I can twirl it enthusiastically without pulling it out!” he says. “When I was playing Akbar, I just became Akbar. I became more sensitive and a little jaded.” For Sawa 14 August’s Pathan, Yasir refused to play the stereotypical Pathan we see portrayed on television, in jokes and films. “Pathans are very intelligent,” Yasir says. “And they’re simple. There are nuances to them like anyone else, but we can’t get past the grammatical mistakes they make when speaking.”

Though both the Sindhi and Pathan in Sawa 14 August were well-received, and Yasir wasn’t accused of any racism playing them, he did receive a couple of complaints. “One Pathan said he doesn’t like the line ‘koi normal Pathan dhoond ke lao’, and actors Sania Saeed and Huma Mir said they couldn’t tell when I was playing a Pathan, and when the Sindhi.”

Yasir’s method works, though his director Dawar Mehmood tells him he is an instinctual actor, not a method actor. “I don’t know the difference between the two,” Yasir confesses. “I haven’t read much about theatre, or seen great theatre. I just try to get what a character is all about and understand my dialogue.” Though Yasir is a self-proclaimed slacker — “Anwar Maqsood thinks of fresh lines to add to the play everyday, and he gives me great lines, but I mostly ask that they be given to another actor” — he seems to have a work ethic that works against him sometimes. Anwar Maqsood may find him a generous, professional team member, but Yasir’s requests for script or character description have cost him television work. “No one from Javed Sheikh to Sana has asked us for the script, only dates,” he recalls one director telling him.

His ‘laziness’ extends to him contemplating not taking the next big role — that of Gandhi in the upcoming Sarhay 14 August. “I’ll shave my head. I’ll drop the weight,” says Yasir, “but how will I manage that voice? Gandhi was very soft-spoken, at least at the age that the character will be, and pitching my voice that low will kill my vocal chords.” There is little doubt that he’ll do it though. As he will the role of Mirza in Kopykats’ next production, Half Plate.

Somewhere in between, Yasir hopes to direct and produce his own play too. “It will be commercial masala,” says the actor, “I think it’s time we give the audience what they want to see, and what they want to see is masala. How many people do you think went and watched Begum Jaan? Who would pay Rs1,500 for it? It was priced at Rs600 rupees, and it still ran just for 10 days,” Yasir says. “The truth is: jo bikta hai who dikhta hai”

Yasir’s own venture will be centred on a typical Pakistani wedding, full of song, dance and lots of jokes. After 11 years in theatre, Yasir feels he should helm his own project. After all, “people who started after me started directing when they were a play old.” Besides, despite becoming a celebrated figure in commercial theatre, Yasir feels actors don’t really get their due, at least monetarily. “You still have to do other stuff if you want to make money.”

How about all those corporate sponsorships though? It must mean actors and the crew are generally earning more than before — “all that goes to the producers,” he says. Besides, corporate sponsorship coupled with amateur directors desperate for financial assistance means they will go to any length to please their client.

“The client will want to brand everything,” Yasir says. “When these directors agree to slather walls with banners inside and out, sponsors want more from the next project looking for backing. They will want branded clocks on stage, or be in the dialogue.”

While sponsorship is great news for theatre, Yasir feels it will impact the next generation negatively, if their predecessors don’t set boundaries now. “Consider the blatant branding in popular TV comedy Bulbulay, and those bits are pointless — that’s what theatre might become if sponsors are not only catered to within reason.”

Despite working exclusively with Kopykats Productions for now, and holding Dawar Mehmood in high regard, Yasir wishes there was more, well, brotherhood between various theatre teams in business. “It used to be that one team would invite the other to watch their play and invite critique and share insight,” he says, “now there isn’t … that feel, that atmosphere. And we really need it back.”

Not surprising that Yasir wants bonhomie within the theatre community, as he credits all his success to Anwar Maqsood and Dawar Mehmood, and his other longtime collaborators — Talal Jilani and Nurjis Jafri, as well as the actors supporting Sawa 14 August. “Bilal Yousuf Zai and Ishtiaq Rasool … everyone is great, and everyone is a piece of the puzzle that makes the whole picture,” says Yasir. “I never want to get to a point where I start thinking that I’m better than anyone else — that might be the end of the actor, and I’d never want that!