For the last 20 years, Adeel Hashmi has been associated with comedy that has achieved cult status. Who can forget the iconic Lucy who was part of Teen Batta Teen or the characters he portrays in the cellular phone service commercials. For an actor who has inherited talent from parents Shoaib Hashmi and Muneeza Hashmi, doing a comedy film would have been ideal but not for Adeel who likes to surprise people, and be surprised in return.

“I was taken aback when the director of Bachaana Nasir Khan offered me the role of lead villain. I haven’t crossed over to the dark side yet; and I would have to convince viewers that I’m the bad guy. He said he knew what he was doing and since we have worked together before, I went ahead with it.”

A fan Peter Sellers’ work, Adeel Hashmi’s entry into films comes quite late as friends Faisal Qureshi (comedian) and Ahmed Ibrahim made their respective film debuts in Very Good Duniya Very Bad Loag and No Paisa No Problem (between 1998 and 2000). “When they did films, they were young and new to the field. They might have said yes in excitement but I didn’t since I knew that those kinds of films weren’t my cup of tea. There is a huge difference between the films of that era and those being made today; we are far ahead than we were back then. I’m sure that if you ask Faisal (Qureshi) about his debut film, he would say that it was a forgetful experience and he would like to restart his filmi career.”

Adeel is also missing in action when it comes to TV dramas. “I’m not acting on TV because I can’t do the kind of stuff that is being produced. Our humour is quite different from the thing that you call comedy on TV and since I don’t enjoy being part of that, it’s better to stay away with dignity. You may call it our good luck but when TV needed us, we migrated from stage to do quality programming; now we are migrating to cinema because the audience has matured and our films are also doing well financially.”

Adeel is missing in action when it comes to dramas. “I’m not acting on TV because I can’t do the kind of stuff that is being produced. Humour is quite different from the thing that you call comedy on TV, and since I don’t enjoy being part of that, it’s better to stay away with dignity.”

And then there is his legacy as Lucy — nearly everyone who saw PTV in the ’90s still remembers him as the goofy guy from Teen Batta Teen with his other two partners in crime, Ali Tahir (Johnny) and Faisal Qureshi (Shaffu). They all entered the sitcom industry when it was in its infancy and helped it become a financially successful domain. “Whenever I meet people the first line they utter on seeing me is ‘Lucy’, such has been the impact of the character that I created 20 years back. I don’t mind if they don’t remember my other projects because every actor gets associated with one character per career, and Lucy is what I would be to them, for life.”

The writer-actor feels that it is high time to make his own film where he can use his ideas to entertain a different audience. “Currently, I’m working on my own film and the script is nearly complete. The Bachaana team is a good one and in the next one year or 18 months, we might come out with a film.”

How does he spend his time if he’s not working for the TV drama industry? “I’m busy with my own work, hosting events besides making documentaries with director Nasir Khan. The short films about Pakistan help bring forward social issues and problems faced by the people. Since I don’t promote my work, it doesn’t get highlighted and I also don’t want to come into the limelight as I believe that good work eventually gets noticed.”

A sitting with Adeel Hashmi can’t be complete without the mention of his resemblance with Howard Wolowitz in the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. “Everyone asks me this question but as I haven’t seen the sitcom I can’t comment. You should ask that guy (Simon Helberg) whether he has seen Teen Batta Teen since it came a long time back (laughs). I plan to watch The Big Bang Theory though, as I am intrigued; I am sort of convinced that the guy must look like me.”

The grandson of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Adeel has been around since the ’80s; if you take his appearance in the anti-smoking campaign featuring Wasim Akram where he got to ask the iconic question ‘Wasim bhai, aap thaktay nahi hain? (Wasim bhai, don’t you get tired?). Who would have thought that the two would work on later in commercials as well, which Adeel considers is a big part of his career — be it the Shawshank Redemption-styled prison break, the CHiPs-inspired cops, the Spaghetti Western setting or discovering an Egyptian mummy. “When we started many years back, we tried to be different and were labeled as a breath of fresh air by many. Sadly, the kind of humour we bring to the advertisement industry wasn’t taken forward and we are the only ones to go that way.”

“The team — except Mikaal (Zulfiqar) who joined us late — has been working together for two decades now and since we are gelled in, we aren’t afraid to experiment.” Adeel continues to lavish praise on his colleagues. “Faisal Qureshi’s creative acumen is one of the reasons why we are still producing humorous commercials that reach the target market successfully. All we do is go for proper characterisation, use simple dialogues and ideas that aren’t out of this world and voila, out comes the commercial that makes people smile for a change! I have always said and continue to say so that if the team is united, they can achieve anything no matter how difficult it may seem.”

Ask Adeel to pick his favourite commercial and what you get is, “That’s difficult but if I am asked to pick one, I would go for where I get thrown out of the house by my wife and everything bad happens to me afterwards. It may not be close to reality, but it was fun making it.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 31st, 2016