Model turned television and film star, Gia Ali springs quite a few surprises when asked about her favourite pastime. While she says she enjoys watching movies and television programmes, the most, surprisingly she claims is that she is “through with love stories”. The reason she cites for her disenchantment with romantic movies and plays is that she is, “Fulfilled with her love life.” Therefore, Hollywood movies that don’t centre on love are what she watches with great zeal. Says she, “They leave me feeling good and satisfied.”
However, she says she doesn’t shop for films as such, and is more of a TV person, watching all the channels and the programmes and movies on air. So much so, that often while channel surfing, a movie might catch her attention, and she’ll watch it in its entirety without knowing what she is watching. States Gia, “When I am married and staying home all day — I have been working for 20 years, so don’t plan on continuing after marriage — I intend to watch movies of my choice.”
Another unexpected comment Gia makes is that she doesn’t “like Indian movies at all.” In fact, she says she “doesn’t watch them as they basically comprise a string of dances and are not at all close to reality. There are very few Indian movies that are really good.” However, during the course of the interview she does make some references to Bollywood flicks she has seen and enjoyed. Says Gia, “I don’t mind their television shows, though. As for Indian movies, I only watch them if they are highly recommended by friends and have a lot of substance.”
Among the Indian movies that Gia has seen and relished she mentions one that is “On the dance form and is close to reality.” She has also seen Veer Zara and “liked it. For a change the director has portrayed Pakistan in a positive light.” As for Pakistani movies, Gia feels they are not worth talking about. States she, “We don’t have an industry at all. It’s zero. Those times have gone when we had a film industry to boast of.”
From the Hollywood productions, Gia says the one movie she would rate as unforgettable is Pretty Woman a flick she describes as “My bachpan ki movie”. According to her, she “learnt to love” seeing this film. But nowadays she only watches movies on social issues, or at the most, action films, although she doesn’t recall their names. She also says she enjoys watching Iranian and French cinemas. Although she doesn’t remember the titles of the movies, she does recall at least one storyline of an Iranian film that she had loved — about a little boy who shares a pair of shoes with his sister.
While Gia says she enjoys watching western programmes on television, the one programme she categorically says she never enjoyed is Sex and the City. Says she, “I couldn’t relate to it so didn’t enjoy it, although all models seemed to love it.”
Gia’s taste in music is as unusual as it is in movies. She claims that she likes different music to suit different moods. Gia says she mostly listens to music while exercising.
She loves “Madonna and Michael Jackson” and thinks “Jennifer Lopez is also a great performer and is perfect for live shows.” While she enjoys listening to all of Madonna’s songs she rates her “eighties series as amazing listening material.”
That is not to say that Gia is not fond of listening to Indian songs. She enjoys the old numbers especially, and ranks R.D. Burman, Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi among her favourite singers. She also finds Gulzaar sahib’s lyrics “amazing”.
Depending on her mood, Gia says she also enjoys listening to qawaali and to Nusrat Fateh Ali in particular. She adds, “Being a dancer, I also love music that is accompanied by performances. I relate to songs directly and love to watch live concerts.” Gia says she has “also heard baray Khan sahib” and likes his gaikey, andaaz aur awaaz”. Another singer she has heard is Nustrat Fateh Ali’s father but she admits candidly that she didn’t understand the latter much.
Books and Gia don’t go together, and she is quick to admit that she is normally not into reading any kind of books, whether serious or light. She says, since she has no siblings, there was no one to inculcate the habit of reading in her as a child. Even as a student, she never managed to finish reading her course books and was always more into dancing, drama and sports.
However, she says she has been reading Harry Potter books “since her childhood — seven to eight years ago” but doesn’t read them anymore. She also used to read cartoon books and Spiderman comics as a kid. Explaining her lack of interest in books she says, “I am a very hyper kind of person and can’t sit around, so don’t get time to read at a stretch.” Not surprisingly, the only kind of reading that Gia enjoys currently are fashion and society magazines and fashion-related articles, and most of her reading is restricted to the bathroom. She says she doesn’t even try reading at night before going to bed because her doctor has advised her not to lie down and read, and anyway, just reading a line makes her go off to sleep.
The one good news though is that Gia has finally, recently picked up a book in India related to her work. It is about how to develop a story into a film or a screenplay, and she is finding the book extremely informative and helpful. Says she, “It has helped me as an artist, especially in finalizing scripts. It teaches you to appreciate the power of the script. With articles in it written by different writers and on different subjects all related to film and drama, it is an excellent guidebook for people from the Pakistani film industry, as we have no proper training and no agent to guide us.”
Model turned television and film star, Gia Ali springs quite a few surprises when asked about her favourite pastime. While she says she enjoys watching movies and television programmes, the most, surprisingly she claims is that she is “through with love stories”. The reason she cites for her disenchantment with romantic movies and plays is that she is, “Fulfilled with her love life.” Therefore, Hollywood movies that don’t centre on love are what she watches with great zeal. Says she, “They leave me feeling good and satisfied.”
