Hamza Ali Abbasi takes pride in the fact that he does not want to stick to hero roles only although he is the perfect candidate for the job. He mesmerized the viewers with his impeccable performance in Waar and Mein Hoon Shahid Afridi. The drama lovers were impressed by his work in Pyare Afzal but Hamza Ali Abbasi says, “People expect you to be a hero, you’re young , you look a certain way and people perceive you a certain way, and you end up being typecast. I don’t want that. Being a hero doesn’t involve a lot of acting. I love a challenging role because I’m not a hero — I’m an actor. In Kambakht, I deliberately play an ugly, crude character.”
While talking about his upcoming film Kambakht with Dawn News Hamza Ali Abbasi said that direction was his first love. While talking about his experience as a director he said, “I could have done much better as a director……It’s a full-time job behind the camera, and it’s a full-time job being in front of it. In the future I will not act in any film that I direct.”
Hamza Ali Abbasi added, “The film is an indie comedy….“I deliberately chose to make a comedy because I wanted to make people laugh. It doesn’t try to be anything else. I wanted to see if we could even make a film that was two hours’ long. If people are laughing for a third of that time in the cinema, for me, that’s good enough.”
Talking about upcoming films and those that have already been shows, Hamza said, “Jalaibee is another film I’m looking forward to, because I know it’ll entertain me………Tamanna was technically sound, but as a cinemagoer, it didn’t draw me. Seedlings is an excellent film, but it didn’t bring people to the cinema. We need comedies. The primary motive to make films has to be entertainment — there can’t be a divide between that and creating awareness.”
Hamza said, “I’m being pressured right now to put an item number in the film. When it comes to giving something to the people, I don’t think we should make nudity and vulgarity a part of entertainment. We shouldn’t want people to appreciate it. I will not have a semi-clothed woman dancing in my film to entertain people. I think that is the lowest form of entertainment.”
Hamza Ali Abbasi does not believe in the Bollywood formula to make hit films at all. He said in the interview, “If the Bollywood formula was going to make a film successful, MHSA would have been a bigger hit than Waar.”
Talking about his future ventures, Hamza Ali Abbasi said, “The next film that I’m planning is in collaboration with the ISPR….“It has a strong female in the leading role, someone who is pretty awesome as a character. The ISPR has just come onboard regarding this; we need their military support and logistics to pull this one off.”
Hamza Ali Abbasi also hopes to make a film on Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. We wish him all the best!