He’s effervescent, spontaneous, enthusiastic and chatty, with an ever- ready smile and bright eyes. Meet the 27-year old Azfar Rehman, who in the last seven years, has been rolling out play after play. His last two serials Tanhai and Ishq Mein Tere fetched the highest rating on Hum TV. Currently, his serial Janam Jali tops the charts.

His gift of gab brought him to showbiz in 2007, is that an essential attribute for an anchor? “Absolutely, it is a gift after all,” he said, “I’m a natural. I have met a number of anchors on TV and they are too busy trying to please the guests. They mostly do or say certain things under pressure from the channel for TRPs. It is the only reason why I have never ventured into hosting a morning show.”

But anchoring remains his first love since his debut into showbiz with Spotlight with Azfar Rehman, a talk show where he interviewed celebrities. “It completed 100 episodes. Actually in those days I was done with my A’ Levels and in my family they push you to start working before university starts so I was also working for a women’s lifestyle magazine. Of course I had to convince the very skeptical all-female team that the male perspective is important. This is why I am very enthusiastic about giving interviews to the print media.”

Azfar Rehman has a million and one things on his mind … much like his multi-dimensional showbiz career

It is difficult to nail him to one topic. We were talking about your talk show, I remind him, cutting through his endless chatter. “The interviews that I conducted went on air live,” he related, “I would talk to people about general stuff. If I had invited a cricketer, I would talk to him about everything but cricket and try to bring the person out. Looking back I can say it was a milestone in my career.”

And what about hosting morning shows? “I have hosted one for an interim period of 10 days or a week but I have certain limitations and I can’t cross them,” he said, “They should bring out classy women like Atiqa Odho to do morning shows; imagine how people would learn how to speak, how to dress and conduct their body language.”

Azfar and Aamina Sheikh backstage at Veet Celebration of Beauty. - Photo by Faisal Farooqui

Once in showbiz, did you eventually want to become an actor? “I had no plans as such,” he confessed, “The background I come from is not very pro-film but very academic; placing a high value on education and making smart career choices. My parents were like ‘Yek kya kar rahe ho? So and so died of starvation’ etc. With a Bachelors degree in advertising, back then I wanted to run my own ad agency someday, or I would have done my Masters and gone abroad.”

But things changed unexpectedly and his love for travelling got him into acting. “It was never for the love of the work initially,” he said, “I was so excited about a play being shot in London and being the male lead against one of the best female leads. It sounded as though overnight I had become Shahrukh Khan! I had to convince my parents that things were changing, that actors are now making a living out of acting.”

Azfar says he is very pleased with drama production in Pakistan. “Zee TV has launched Zindagi, and my plays are being aired on it,” he said, “And it is not about India. It is about the pool of audience expanding.”

In 2014, he was nominated best actor for the Hum TV Awards for Ik Pagal si Larki. “I didn’t win it although it got the best female actor and best soap awards,” he said, “It was directed by Saife Hasan, a very accomplished director.”

He feels he still has a long way to go. “I haven’t done much at all,” Azfar stated, “If I tell myself I have, I won’t be able to do anything more. I have seen colleagues just let themselves go because they think they have done enough. They don’t work on their physical fitness or looks, and lose their passion for work. I think it is very important to maintain a firm grip on yourself. I go to the gym regularly and I have some fabulously positive, optimistic friends.”

Does he have any beauty secret? “Genetics!” He burst out laughing. “I eat everything. I am a desi food lover who has daal chawal and raita salad for every meal. My family is notorious for eating desserts. We must have a sweet dish every day, rain or shine! If I didn’t eat roti I would get depressed. I can’t deprive myself of good food; I can’t be living on black coffee. I exercise and I eat less.

So what is he currently working on? “I have just finished a serial Janam Jali which is on air,” he responded, “ Earlier, I did Tanhai with Ayesha Omar and Ishq Mein Tere with Mehwish Hayat; got tremendous feedback for both.”

Aren’t you doing similar roles and being paired with the same female lead in many different serials? “That does happen a lot,” he said, “You see, when a serial is a hit, immediately at least two more serials will try and cash in on the success of the first one. So the same script comes again directed by someone else. I try to avoid this trap. I make sure the female lead is different and also that I should look different in every role. I keep experimenting with my looks. For a role that I did where I played a Hindu Dalit, I had to put on shoe polish everyday on my skin. But I enjoy this, mera kaam yehi hai.”

In Tanhai, he did his first negative character, a 360-turn from his chocolate hero image. “This is when I started taking acting seriously, in 2011,” he said, “Between my talk show in 2007 and this point; I was just doing assignments randomly. It was the golden era of Star Plus and nobody would pay attention to our plays.

What does he think about the Turkish plays era? “I think we are way better than Turkish plays,” he stated, “They might be really good in terms of production value but our stories are better. There is a reason why Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern countries dub our plays and show them to their audiences. In a low budget, our dramas can make people laugh and cry. What more do viewers want?”

Azfar’s idea of a good role doesn’t always go down well with the audiences. “I played the character of a psychopath for Angeline Malik,” he related, “She always casts me in different shades and characters. Then I played Aaminah Sheikh’s conscience in another play where the viewer finds out in the end that Aaminah’s character was possessed and I was a ghost. I played an autistic person in PTV’s Ye Gurya Meri Hai. These roles were not really appreciated by the viewers. They only like to see me as the Dilwale Dulhaniya Lejayenge-type lover boy from abroad roles.”

He often raves about Ranbir Kapoor? Is Bollywood his benchmark? “Yes I do envy him,” he confessed, “He has achieved so much. It is not about being a star kid. Yash Chopra’s son is a flop and so is Amitabh’s. This guy is immensely talented and lucky to get the role that he did in Barfi and Wake Up, Sid. I am also a huge fan of Aamir Khan. Among their directors I like Vishal Bhardwaj, Reema Kagti and Kiran Rao. Unfortunately we are stuck in husband-wife type roles; there is hardly any experimental work. We are TRP dictated and arty stuff is frowned upon by channels. I enjoyed doing Khandan-i-Shughlia with Khalid Ahmad and Ehtashamuddin. Whatever I do must be graceful and dignified.”

Among the directors whom Azfar likes to work with are Sarmad Khoosat, Faheem Burney and Haisam Hussain. According to him, “They are open-minded people and their plays are very impressive and and the blend is marvelous.”

Azfar believes that in Pakistan there is still time for films of a certain quality to be made at a certain pace. “I have been offered three or four Pakistani films by established TV directors,” he said, “I would rather do the second project instead of the first one. I want to give a 100pc otherwise it is no fun.”

He also admits being partial towards his friends, “I love working with Ayesha Omar and Mehwish Hayat.” He’s worked with all these pretty girls and has had no scandals in seven years? “There are lots of scandals in the Urdu press. According to them I have a school-going son!” he laughed and shared the story of a tweet that rocked his world.

“On a really cold night at a shoot in Murree, everyone had gone to sleep and I was still up, thinking of random things. I tweeted the following: ‘Feeling cold and lonely, away from home and need a hug’.” Some Urdu press pundit twisted it completely. My brother gave me a cutting and I was quite embarrassed. It said: “Azfar Rehman ko Murree ka suhana mausam kaatne ko daur raha tha, unki saathi adakaraein bhi unki tanhai door na kar paaeen, aur unho ne iltaja ki hai ke koi unhe gallay to lagalay!”

So why doesn’t he settle down and give his mum and the gossip-mongers some peace? “Mothers will be mothers,” he laughed, “Of course she always thinks I don’t eat enough or that I should get married tomorrow. But right now there are no plans. I was in a relationship for three years with a co-star. It ended on a bad note even though it was one of the best things to happen in my life. I meet random people and I wouldn’t say that I am complete with myself because everyone longs for a relationship. But I’m still not out of the perfection of that relationship. It is a bit filmi!”

Finally, Azfar has a treat in store for his fans. “I want to do a music album,” he revealed, “I have chosen about 10 songs from a particular era that I love and I will re-sing them. I might do injustice to all of them and people might hate me for singing them but I will still sing them. This I just have to do.” We’ll be all ears when that happens.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 21st, 2014