Mani is a multi-talented Pakistani host, actor, and comedian. His real name is Salman Saqib Sheikh, but in the media industry, he is famously known as Mani. He gained fame through his popular comedy shows with Azfar Ali. Mani’s father, Saqib Sheikh, was a renowned PTV artist. His sister, Ayesha, was also part of the media industry but left soon after getting married. Mani is also considered the pioneer of road shows in Pakistan. Hira Mani was a fan of his when he was a VJ.
Recently, Mani appeared in Ahmed Ali Butt’s podcast Excuse Me. In the podcast, he opened up about getting married at the peak of his career, supporting wife and social media criticism.
Talking about it, he said, “I got married in 2008. I got married because my younger brother was getting married and due to a societal pressure that elder brother hasn’t married yet and younger one is getting married, I had to. Also, I was never serious about getting married. I just had an affair for around 6 months then I ran away from her but soon realized that Hira is the person I want to spend life with. At that time, I was quite famous and she was my fan. She used to watch me on the TV whole day and her family was quite against me. One fine day I contacted Hira and proposed her. Faisal Qureshi’s wife persuaded us to marry sooner as possible and we got married within two months of our decision.” Here is the link to the video:
He further added, “Many people are hurt by the fact that I supported my wife, but now we have actually stopped thinking about it. People call me someone who is blind in his wife’s love because of my unprecedented support. Let them be. We have forcefully become part of a value system on which we don’t allow our women too work which is harming our society. People with regressive thoughts create agitation in society. I would have supported any girl entering the industry — I would have supported my daughter too. My father was a producer and actor; he allowed my sister to work. I also want my wife, my daughter, and my wife’s sister to flourish in this field. Success is in our house; it has shifted from me to Hira. Hira has improved herself so much as an actor”.
He further added that the trolls and criticism doesn’t affect him anymore because Hira once advised him to stop reading all the comments and after that he was never bothered by hate or criticism. Here is the link to the video:
