 "Fawad Khan")
If there is one actor who has found his cinematic career closely intertwined with India and Pakistan’s political relations, it is Fawad Khan.
The fallout of the Uri attack last month, which led to the actor leaving India, carries an uncanny sense of déjà vu. Eight years ago, soon after his highly successful Pakistani launch film, Khuda Ke Liye, Khan was supposed to make his Bollywood debut. But just then the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks took place. And, the freeze in the relations between the two countries put those plans in cold storage.
As destiny would have it, Khan, 34, eventually did come to India – initially, through the Zindagi channel that telecast Pakistani soaps. His intense and nuanced performance in Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar Hai had the Indian audience hooked. Khan, who had started out as a singer-songwriter in the Lahore-based rock band, Entity Paradigm, was the kind of multi-layered actor we never came across in the saas-bahu-dominated Indian soap operas.
His versatility became even more evident in the Pakistani drama Aaja Sajna Miliye Juliye in which he played a village bumpkin obsessed with the idea of migrating to America. You could almost smell the dust of the village on his shawl and liberally-oiled hair. As the soap progressed, one forgot that this was the same man who had played the suave and cultured lead in Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar Hai.
Bollywood was the next natural step. His first Indian film, Khoobsurat (2014), was only the second one of his career after Khuda Ke Liye. It did fairly well on the box office, though many who had seen Khan in the Pakistani tele dramas felt it was talent wasted. The role was linear and left him unexplored as an actor opposite a giggly Sonam Kapoor.
However, the Karan Johar-produced Kapoor & Sons two years later did him justice. It was a bold role that required him to play a homosexual. For once it was not a caricaturised portrayal and Khan navigated it gracefully. Johar went to the extent of calling him a “brave actor”. Six actors before him had turned down the part for fear of being typecast.
Johar’s next film, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which has Khan in a special appearance, is scheduled to release next week. But now, with the nationalist rhetoric reaching a crescendo, the director, who had until now stood his ground, has also buckled under pressure and declared that he will not cast any Pakistani actors in future. Already the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has threatened to disrupt his film’s screenings because it has Khan in a five-minute role.
Zindagi, the channel that introduced Khan to India, has also decided to discontinue shows from the neighbouring country. Instead, it is now coming up with Indian and Turkish soap operas.
With the lines sharply drawn, Fawad Khan’s India innings appears to have come full circle. For now.
