“I watch each and every drama,” Usama Khan tells me. “The 7pm, 8pm and 9pm slots!”

I have only just begun conversing with the young actor and, while I plan to discuss his achievements over a career that spans less than four years, Usama’s TV drama marathons are achievements all on their own.

I’m curious: you don’t feel the inclination to skip out the long-dragging bits that are an inevitable part of local TV fare?

Usama reconsiders. “I try to watch every TV drama. There are some that I end up skipping or watching with the YouTube-viewing speed increased. There are others that I will watch scene by scene.”

Usama Khan is only four years into his fledgling acting career. But he has already attracted the attention of A-list directors and is still excited by all the possibilities that await him

For the young actor, who left his home in Gujranwala to become a banker in Lahore only for the acting bug to bite him and lead him to Karachi, watching TV is part of his professional training.

“When I watch a drama, I become acquainted with the way the director shoots the scenes, the camera angles used for up-close shoots, what scenes are likely to be shot in a single take. It helps me understand how the director thinks.”

Usama applies this know-how when he is on set, for instance when he worked with director Mehreen Jabbar in Candi Mere Dost Mere Yaar Season 2, with Wajahat Hussain in last year’s Ramazan hit Ishq Jalebi and most recently in Dobara directed by Danish Nawaz currently airing on Hum TV, and Aik Sitam Aur on ARY Digital.

“I’m a director’s actor. I like to have discussions with the director in order to understand my characters’ journey and psyche. I had seen Danish bhai’s direction in Khaas and there was a certain scene in that drama that I had really liked,” says Usama. “I told him that if he wanted to extract a performance like that from me in Dobara, I was completely onboard.”

Usama’s TV drama binges aren’t solely propelled by professional reasons. He’s just always been a drama buff. “My Ammi [mother] reads all the female digests and novels and so does my sister. They discuss them all the time and I used to be around, listening to the stories and I would really enjoy them. Ammi also watches all the dramas. In fact, any time I get a script, I just send it to her and ask her if she thinks that it is good enough.”

Was she excited when he left banking and decided to pursue acting? “She was, but my father was worried!” Usama grins.

And now?

“Now, they are both excited.”

Usama, at this fledgling stage in his career, also strikes me as an actor who is excited by the possibilities that await him. He tells me that he tries that every role that he does is different from his previous ones. “I always want to play characters that have a lot to do in the story,” he says.

Doesn’t he get intimidated by the challenges of playing such characters? “Yahi tau karnay aaye hain! [This is what we’ve come to do!]” he smiles. “I am not scared of challenges. There is a certain age at which an actor can improvise and learn the ropes before he or she starts getting offered the same roles again and again. I want to make the most out of these opportunities that I have.”

He’s choosing his roles well, it seems. Over the past year, his performances have been appreciated in both Ishq Jalebi as well as Dobara. Both dramas, however, don’t feature him in the titular role. Did that bother him?

There is a certain age at which an actor can improvise and learn the ropes before he or she starts getting offered the same roles again and again. I want to make the most out of these opportunities that I have.”

“It used to bother me once but it doesn’t anymore,” he admits. “My character should have interesting arcs. In Ishq Jalebi, for instance, I understood the role that I was playing, of a boy who was deeply attached to his family.”

He proceeds to describe his role in Dobara, a drama which narrates the story of an older woman marrying a younger man. Usama is enacting the woman’s volatile young son, constantly in the spotlight as he undergoes moments of incredulity, hurt and rage.

“I don’t have the title role but, in my mind, Dobara revolves around four people: the mother, her new husband, the son and the phuppo [aunt]. I always knew that my role in Dobara would get noticed. I just didn’t expect the response to be so positive! I think even in reality I would have reacted the same way as my character does in Dobara to such a situation.”

He is also all praises for Aik Sitam Aur, a drama that has just started airing on ARY Digital in the 9pm slot. A lot of actors opt only for the 8pm prime time projects. Does he not have similar reservations?

“My character in Aik Sitam Aur has so many shades and is so interesting. Also, the drama is directed by Ilyas Kashmiri who has directed dramas like Kunn Fayakun in the past. As long as the team that I am working with is good, it doesn’t matter to me what time the drama gets aired.”

He’s worked in quite a few prime projects with A-list directors within the short span of his career. How has he managed that?

“It’s been through word of mouth,” he shrugs. “I came to Karachi to work on a drama that I didn’t end up getting cast in. For a while, I waited and slowly, more work came in. I had auditioned for Mere Dost Mere Yaar because the director Mehreen Jabbar wasn’t familiar with my work. Now, though, most directors have seen my work on TV and they offer me roles accordingly.”

Has he tried networking? “No, I don’t really like socialising for work,” he says — and I believe him. In fact, the first time I met Usama, it was on a boisterous star-studded flight en route Lahore for an awards ceremony. Usama was nominated in the ‘Most Stylish’ category — he has a knack for mixing and matching his clothes in some very cool ways — and while his peers took airport selfies and hung around together, Usama had kept to himself.

“Yes, I don’t talk too much,” he agrees. “Some people assume that it is rude but I also don’t want to be over-friendly and give people the chance to make fun of me behind my back.”

He continues, “I have always gotten along with the people that I have worked with. We were so stressed out on the set of Ishq Jalebi. We would shoot an episode and it would go on air. Dinner, iftari, mornings, nights, everything would be on set. One scene would be shot on the first floor and then we’d run downstairs and shoot the next one. Despite the exhaustion, no one ever fought with anyone.

“On the set of Dobara, I get along really well with Bilal Abbas and I’m joking with Sakina Samo all the time. I’m also currently working with Rubina Ashraf and Sajid Hassan and I often discuss scenes with them, how we’ll be standing and talking. Everyone helps each other out.”

That sounds fairly hunky dory. Has he truly never experienced industry politics, where he was offered a role and suddenly got replaced? “That might have happened…” he evades.

Did you not get to know about it? “I may have gotten to know about it,” he accepts.

I find Usama’s evasiveness very funny and I say so. He smiles. “These things happen. There have also been times when I have been cast in a role which earlier may have been offered to someone else. If I had no other scripts coming my way, perhaps I would have complained about the one role that got away and was a success. But I have so much work to do. I’d rather focus on the work that I do have and do it well.”

He is doing it well enough. He’s delivered some very good performances so far and it seems that Usama — and his drama-buff Ammi — have an eye for selecting the right scripts!

“I’m here to work and I enjoy it,” he says, smiling a half-smile that I now know so well from TV. The enjoyment translates well on TV.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 3rd, 2022