He’s a familiar face but a not very familiar one. This is testament to Nauman Masood’s prowess as an actor. Thirty-four years in the acting field, with numerous impressive performances to his credit, Nauman has the chameleon-like ability to transform into the character that he is playing.

He tells me so himself: “I see young people sometimes nudging each other and asking, ‘Is that him?’” He grins.

He sits across from me for this interview, wearing a suit, his hair and beard dyed black, an actor who has travelled the world and has worked as a producer and a restauranter, while simultaneously pursuing his passion for performing. And even I, at times, find it difficult to connect him with his most recent TV drama character, in Tann Mann Neel o Neel (TMNON).

In the drama, Nauman plays a middle-aged man weighed down by his past, living perpetually in guilt, his eyes downcast, his movements slow, a man of few words. The character was teeming with complexities and, despite the presence of more colourful linchpins in the story, you would inevitably be drawn to Nauman’s ‘Ehsan’. What was he thinking? Why was he like this?

When, finally, the mystery behind his silence gets solved — in an outstanding confession scene shot on a rooftop with his co-actress Nadia Afgan — you feel goosebumps. It was veritably one of the finest, most nuanced performances to be seen on TV in recent times.

LOOKING FOR THE ARC

Scenes like these are rare in TV’s mass-centric, hackneyed landscape. And also, dramas like the path-breaking TMNON are rare. “I feel honoured that I was part of a drama such as Tann Mann Neel o Neel,” says Nauman. “It had a story in which every character was significant. Every character was a hero, a heroine, a villain and, in the span of eleven episodes, everyone performed so well.

“The writer, Mustafa Afridi, and director Saife Hassan took their time developing the story, discussing every dialogue. And then came the casting, which wasn’t based on which actor was more affordable or more popular, but on who fit into the writer’s vision for the character.

He’s been around for more than three decades, having played leads, villains and a lot of fathers on TV. Then jaded with it all, the actor decided to shift cities and pull back on his first passion. But playing a complex character in the widely appreciated Tann Mann Neel o Neel has not only allowed him to showcase his extraordinary talents as a performer, it has also, he says, made him feel alive again…

“In a lot of our dramas, the entire story is just based on the hero and the heroine — where they go, what they do, what they say,” continues Nauman. “All the other characters are just peripheral. They don’t have anything to do. I get plenty of offers for playing the role of a father. I live in Islamabad so I have noticed that, particularly for projects being shot there, I get prioritised for father roles. But the father needs to have something to do.”

He adds: “In reality, the journey of a mother and a father never ends, from raising children, to guiding them when they are older, to getting them married, ensuring that they are settled in their lives. I played a father in Tann Mann Neel o Neel too but my character had a journey, he had a story of his own. The entire ensemble in the drama was given importance, which was why people liked it so much.”

BRINGING BACK THE PASSION

Did he not mind playing a character who was so unlike him — an unobtrusive, subdued salesman at a hardware store with no glamorous aspect to him?

“No, I love transforming into new characters, to subtract myself out completely and do something completely different. When I came to the set of [TMNON]for the first time, director Saife Hassan looked at me and said that he didn’t want Nauman Masood, ‘What can you do?’

“I was so happy when I heard this. I always have a little kit with me and I went into the changing room and trimmed my beard, parted my hair and slicked it back with oil. When I came out, Saife looked at me and told me to wait. He went out somewhere and returned with a cheap pair of spectacles.

“Then, I have stacks of old clothes that I have collected over the past three decades, just in case I might need them for a character. I looked through them and found clothes for Ehsan.” He continues, “They painted a helmet black for me and gave me a dilapidated motorcycle. It was initially difficult — I am a heavy-bike rider and I couldn’t figure out how to balance on the seat!

“This drama has brought back my passion for acting. Before this, I had nearly left acting altogether. I loved it so much that I had to leave it.”

This statement makes me curious. Nauman elaborates: “I had left work because I was no longer getting excited by it. I would get offered the same kind of roles again and again in which I had nothing to do. I have seen some of our finest actors getting wasted because they take up mediocre roles just to keep their kitchens running. I was fortunate not to be bound by such financial constraints. I waited and I asked friends to keep me in mind for interesting roles but it was to no avail.

“That was the final nail in the coffin. I decided that, since I couldn’t fight with the world, I could at least take my passion elsewhere. Six years ago, I decided to shift from Karachi back to Islamabad and pursue my dream of opening a restaurant.”

TAKING THE PATH LESS TAKEN

The restaurant — Khaaba by Nauman Masood — came to fruition, with Nauman overlooking the brightly coloured décor, coining the name with his family and, then, supervising the day-to-day management. “I go from table to table, asking customers for their feedback,” he says. “My family has been a huge help. My wife and two sons have helped in getting the restaurant running and, now, I am at a point where I can leave the management to them and take on acting projects.

“I am considering expanding Khaaba to Karachi. Should that happen, my connection with Karachi will strengthen. A lot of new things are happening right now, and I am excited.”

At this point, though, does he feel that he gets prioritised for projects that are being filmed in Islamabad, simply because he lives there and it makes logistical sense?

“Yes, and a lot of times I have refused roles because I can tell that they have only come my way because I am based in Islamabad,” he says. “Until recently, I wouldn’t read the scripts that came my way and would ask my wife, Samreen Nauman, to read them for me. As a former director of formats and special programmes at Geo Entertainment, she has extensive professional experience, and she would particularly read my scripts from the perspective of whether there would be nuances to the character being offered to me.”

The conversation instinctively steers to TMNON: “When she was reading its script, she told me that my character wasn’t doing much in the first three episodes. I told her to leave it but she kept reading and, when she reached the sixth episode, she told me that I should read the script. Once I did, I couldn’t leave it. By the sixth episode, I was crying and I knew that I wanted to be part of this drama.

“On set, I would wait for those particular scenes. I would ask Saife when we would be shooting them. I tried to do my best in the rooftop confession scene but I felt that I could do better. The response to that particular scene was overwhelming. So many people reached out to me, I would constantly get tagged on social media in clips of the scene.

“I called up Mustafa Afridi [TMNON’s writer] and started crying. I told him that I had given up on the idea of doing work like this. I had always been ready but hadn’t gotten the opportunity.”

THE NEED TO FEEL THE SPARK

Surely, back in the PTV days, he must have enacted characters that had stimulated him?

“In every decade, there was at least one project that would make me feel alive again,” he smiles. “I made my debut as the male lead in a drama back in ’93. I was very athletic and I played a soldier, a martial artist. Then came Bandhan, opposite Nadia Khan, which became very popular. I think that drama particularly registered both Nadia and me with the masses. In Inkaar, I played a villain for the first time and got a lot of appreciation. After that, producers would just keep offering me villainous roles!

“We were paid well enough but, also, we would get a lot of acclaim in those times. There was just one channel and dramas would air at just one particular prime time. Birthday parties and weddings would get postponed when a popular drama’s episode was scheduled to air!”

He observes, “The dramas back then weren’t always better than present-day dramas. It’s just that there were less opportunities. Every region had two popular male and female leads that would be part of almost all of their projects, and at least one drama would emerge from each region in a span of six months. Back then, a lot of our time would be spent in rehearsing our lines. Today’s actors get off a plane, sit in the producer’s car, reach the drama set, read the script and enact it right there and then. That’s pretty impressive.”

I ask him if he’s being cynical.

“Sometimes, the performance suffers,” he accepts, and then switches to another tangent. “The problem these days is that, once something becomes a hit, the actor can keep doing the same role again and again in different projects. Advances are taken, contracts are signed and the actor’s financially set for the next five years. It is only later, when the actor comes on to the third set where the role is similar, that he or she starts disliking the work. In the short-term, the financial benefits are very enticing but, in the long run, repetitive roles can really harm an actor’s career.”

RE-ENTERING THE WORLD

Is he working on a new project now? “Yes, I am working on a project for Hum TV. It’s a good story, though not entirely out-of-the-box.” And he’s playing a father in it? He smiles. “Yes, of course. I am told that I am TV’s ‘best abbu’ [dad] these days.”

He pauses. “It’s not Tann Mann Neel o Neel but, then, a drama like that one only comes along once in a while. This is something that my family has been drilling into me — that not every character will be like Ehsan and I need to keep an open mind and consider other scripts.

“It’s just that, after so many years, I feel that I am alive again. My career had ended. I was not being discussed anywhere. I wasn’t moving in media circles. When families would come to Khaaba, the parents would want to take pictures with me while the younger generation would ask, ‘Who is he?’ Now, when they come, they get excited.”

And Nauman Masood is excited. “I have my production company, NaughtyForty Productions and then there is Khaaba.”

He’s hopeful too, looking forward to acting roles that inspire him and show the world what an exceptional, extraordinary performer he is.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 6th, 2025