Vasay Chaudhry is a man of many talents; he is one of the most prolific writers of the industry who has given blockbuster movies like JPNA and hit dramas like Jackson Heights and many sitcoms. He is an engaging host and a remarkable actor as well. He has aced in every field that he has stepped in and it has been a long journey.
In a chat with Hassan Choudary of Something Haute, Vasay recalls the landmarks during this journey and how he has faired so far. Despite being one of the wittiest Pakistani, he isn’t able to define what wit is but he thinks that ‘wit is more like if you have humour with a good presence of mind.”
“I want to clear one thing today that we don’t do slapstick comedy, in fact we can’t. Slapstick is Three Stooges, it’s Charlie Chaplin and it is very expensive production wise. In Pakistan, we do dialogue-based or conversational comedy, and we always had more performers who did dialogue based comedy, whether it was Lehri sahab, Umar Shareef sahab, Moin Akhtar sahab. So, it wasn’t ever slapstick but the word is always written in reviews,” he clarified.
Do you still think Pakistan’s film industry is in the revival stage?
“I think revival phase will continue; this term “revival of Pakistani cinema” was introduced in 2007. After that, we are just trying to make our film industry bigger in terms of cinema screens, more production and reach. For me, the economic growth of the industry is important because it gives more incentive to people to come and join,” he said, adding, “it will take at least two years to get back to where were were pre-covid.”
What compelled you to do theater?
“I actually couldn’t think of anything else; I was very shy and I still am though people don’t know. I think it is more because as a shy person you get to be someone else, you get to do things under the pretext of ‘work’, so subconsciously, it gives you a chance to say that I am not this person but I can do this because it is the demand of this character. I am not this person in reality! I think it is this opposite side of what you are that made you do it,” he shared.
Can a person survive in Pakistan by just being a writer?
“Now they can; for the last 8 to 10 years they can. Earlier, it used to be tough but with television being so big in Pakistan, it is easier,” he said. He further shared an anecdote about writing his first film, Mein Hoon Shahid Afridi.
“I had discussed a script idea with Humayun Saeed for a serial, but he told me that we will make a film on it and I thought that my idea has gone down the drain because nobody was making films at that time. Later, he called me and asked me to work on a script of Mein Hoon Shahid Afridi. I told him that it will be compared with Lagaan or Chak De if we make a sports film, but he said that they are under contracts to make it. So, I had only 10 seconds to make a decision and I said yes. At that time, when Humayun bhai asked me how much I will charge for writing it, I had no clue so I asked him to buy me an Apple laptop. That was worth 1 Lac 17 thousand rupees at that time and I wrote my first film in exchange for that laptop,” he shared laughingly.
Watch the interview here to find out who Vasay considers to be his inspirations:
