Some people are gifted to have an eye for things which most people misses to identify. Arslan Naseer is one of such kinds. He always approaches things with a unique yet simple approach. He has amazing ability to magnify the daily routine simple facts which we usually don’t bother but when a witty comic pops up on our newsfeed, we all love it. In this candid conversation, he speaks his heart out about his most impactful comics that despite being funny have left us thinking. His thought provoking and rebellious, Comics by Arslan is much-admired by the youngsters with as many as 500,000 fans on social media. His cartoons and comic illustrations have been broadcasted on several news channels. So, brace yourself to know about a calm guy behind all the loud characters.
- 1. You appear to be a man of many talents. You make comics, tell stories, and review movies. Where and when did that all start?
Thank you for thinking that way, I would rate myself as quite an average guy actually with some uniqueness to my personality that I realized a few years ago.
I believe that each one of us is unique and talented in one way or another, the problem only arises once we start comparing ourselves with others. As far as getting to know about your hidden talents is concerned, I would say that one should just live in the moment and never fear for what had or will happen. Good things start to happen, once a person starts enjoying the uncertainty of life.
- 2. Tell us about your educational background.
I did my schooling from a military school so I am quite used to following strict routines like getting up at 5 am in the morning for compulsory athletics, drills, studies, and hitting the bed at 10:15 pm sharp. After graduating from school I moved to Ireland for my bachelors in Business, stayed there for about 6 years and then moved to England for my Post Graduation in Marketing. So after almost 8 years of living abroad, I realized that no matter how hard I try, I am a true Desi at heart and a proud one too! That helped me with the decision of moving back to Pakistan which I don’t regret at all!
- 3. When were you happiest?
MashAllah very much happy with whatever I’ve got, but would it be right to say that perhaps the happiest thing hasn’t really happened to me yet ?
On a lighter note, I guess you are the happiest on your wedding day ….and the saddest the next morning.
- 4. Which living person do you most admire, and why?
This has to be Dr. Amir Liaqat Hussain! The guy is a legend. You release a 5 minute video of how I behave off screen and I will dig a hole so deep, make my way out from the other side of the world to start a new life there! But Kudos to the guy, he has made it even bigger! Truly inspirational! Dr Sb if you are reading this please hire me as a singer in your Ramazan show! I am even willing to wear a t-shirt, and run behind you with those shopping bags that you giveaway.
- 5. How did you get started in cartooning?
Been doing this all my life, I can’t even recall the first time I made one. I am pretty sure I learnt drawing before I could write.
- 6. Who are some of the cartoonists whose work inspired you?
Many! Matt Groening tops the list though. Others include Walt Disney, Gary Larson. Mathew Tinman, Jim Davis and Chuck Jones, I grew up watching their work.
- 7. How do you conceptualize your characters? From where do you get inspiration?
Most of my characters and comics are based on real people I come across in my everyday life.
- 8. Do you have a self-imposed schedule, or do you just post stuff when you feel like it?
No schedule at all, I post whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like.
- 9. What was your most embarrassing moment?
Can’t think of one at the moment, there are too many actually. I get embarrassed quite easily. I am a shy person
10.What is your most treasured possession?
These days it’s my headphones
11.What would your super power be?
It has to be the ability to communicate with fish!
12.If you could go back in time, where would you go?
I would go back in the 90s, meet my younger self and slap the living daylights out of him.
13.If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
Smart people? They are quite instinct these days.
14.What is your favourite word?
I like the word “Avenue” I like pronouncing it in a pushto accent which goes something like “AiyoNaiyo”
15.What your favourite book?
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I don’t really read books anymore, just the internet these days. I know it’s shallow but it sure is fun.
16.What’s your favourite place to dine in?
I am quite a simple guy, I do dine out but no favourites in particular. The only favourite place I can think of right now is “Ghar ka khana”.
17.Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Oh I would really look forward to invite Mr. Shrek , Mr. Homer Simpson and our Prime Minister for a dinner.
18.What your guiltiest pleasure?
Sniffing Samad Bond? Am I guilty?
19.What has been your biggest disappointment?
To be honest I don’t have high expectations from life and that helps me with not ending up disappointed. But now that you have asked, you know when you dunk that biscuit in your tea and the part that falls in it? That’s pretty disappointing!
20.What is your greatest fear?
It has to be the fear of heights and I am kind of scared of microwaves as well.
21.What is the closest you have come to death?
Lol interesting question, I have experienced it quite a few times, its better we don’t get into details as it might get disturbing.
22.What song would you like played at your funeral?
Has to be “Aj kaala jora paa saadi farmaish tey”
23.The slogan that makes you laugh…
Has to be “Everybody looks brave holding a gun”, pretty much sums up the current situation in our country.
24.What kind of music can one find in your playlist?
All sort! House, rock, pop, rap, bollywood, Pakistani, anything that’s pleasant to the ears. I have my headphones on most time of the day.
25.If you get an opportunity to build a home at any place around the universe, where would that be and why?
No region in particular but it has to be in the middle of Mountains! There is no doubt about that, in fact that’s one of the items in my bucket list too to “Own a nice little cottage in the mountains”.
26.Do you consider yourself a political critique/analyst?
No I don’t, I just do comedy and unfortunately Pakistani politics is so full of jokers they become a part of my work as well. I sometimes wonder why people even follow my comics. Haven’t they got enough of the comedians sitting in our parliament?
27.Being a keen observer of your art, I have seen many a visitors of your page criticizing your point of view. How do you handle them?
To be honest I get around a 1000 comments on each of the CBA post. For me to go through each one of them isn’t really possible. Also, I have been very vocal about the fact that I am not perfect neither do I want to be. I completely understand if someone doesn’t find my work funny, half of the things that I post on my blog, even I don’t find them funny. I do this for the people who like my work and I am grateful to them. At times some people also forget that it’s a “Comics” page and most of the things posted there, are done in good humour, I never tried to impress the masses. It’s actually pretty amazing to see to a fan following of half a million and I thank God for that but believe me, had I a following of less than 200 people, you would have seen me doing the same.
28.You have thousands of female fans. How many times have you been proposed online?
Not really. Female fans are the best actually, they promote you, they fight for you, they are not afraid of expressing their love and this is what makes them special. I receive a lot of emails but that includes both male and female fans and I try replying them all but sometimes becomes too difficult to manage.
29.Does that contact enter the next stage of communication?
Lol! Never actually. Next stage is out of question, I have never even met any of my female fans alone. Whenever it happened, it was always in groups of 2 -3. I know I don’t look like one but I am quite the “shareef” sort now that made me sound like one of those lollywood actresses “Mera yakeen keejiye sartaaj… mera daaman paak hai”
30.What’s your worst encounter with any fan?
They have always been very nice, but yes some people they react in somewhat weird ways. I respect my fans a lot and I wouldn’t actually like to share any weird experiences. Whatever they do is out of pure love so I don’t really mind but I would also want to request that, sometimes a little joke or a lie amongst friends, just for the sake of it, can affect someone’s personal life. So please avoid doing that as they say that a lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.
31.How did Haroon approach you?
Haroon got to know about my work 2 years ago through one of my fans and wanted to meet me. Reading his message in my facebook inbox I initially thought that its some fake facebook profile but turned out it was the real Haroon. We met at a local coffee shop where he shared a few ideas and the rest is history. If I am not wrong, I think I am one of the oldest members of the Burka Avenger team who is still working on the project; Haroon can confirm that though, we are currently working on Season 2.
32.In early stages you were all praise for Haroon but for some time now, we have not heard about the project from you… Any particular reason?
I still like the guy! I am a fan of his work since the early 90s. He is an asset to this country and has made us proud for nearly 2 decades at different forums. The only reason I am still working on the project is because I like him as a person.
I am going over to his place in a while and now that you have asked, I will make sure to post pictures with him. The reason you don’t see many updates about him is because I don’t want to give this impression that I am “Brushing shoulders with the celebrities” now. Burka Avenger as a project involved quite a few known personalities from the industry and you don’t see me posting about them either. I would rather want to be known as an average guy, with an average day job and an average life style.I like keeping a low profile, it’s good to be on the top but believe me, and it’s quite lonely up there. Also every rise has a fall, it’s better to keep doing what you do and reach for the heights with your feet planted firmly on the ground.
33.Share any amazing Burka Avenger experience with us.
Since I have a separate job during the day, I visit the studios after work and by then most of the crew and the team leaves. I don’t really get to spend much time with the them but yeah it becomes awkward at times when you come across people you have been making comics on. I remember meeting the very talented Hamza Ali Abassi (the voice behind Baba Bandook and VaderoPajero) alongside Bilal Lashari the first time and the first thing he said to me was “Oh so you are the guy who made that “Lassi” Comic on me?” He was nice enough to say that he found the comic funny and it had more than 10 thousand likes! I know he said that to make me feel less miserable, but yeah that was quite awkward.
34.Do you think your efforts were not recognized as they should have been in Burka Avenger?
Well to start with it’s a team effort which includes around 40 -50 young talented people. As far as the recognition is concerned, firstly I wouldn’t want to take all the credit for it. Secondly, promoting me as part of the team was a bitmellowed down on purpose. I am fortunate enough to be ranked as one of the 10 most influential personalities on the Pakistani Social media and if I post something about a specific project, it kind of over shadows the rest of the people working on it. Now the problem arose when it came out as “Comics by Arslan’s project” initially. There were instances where people contacted Haroon telling him that it’s Arslan’s project, which is not true, as I work for Unicorn Black and Haroon is the owner of the company.
But then again, I agree to the point that you are making. We should have been cleverer with marketing the project and cashing on the name I had already made in the sector. Still Burka Avenger was all over the social media and was also a top trend on Twitter for quite a few days on its launch. So I think my social media presence contributed quite a lot in creating the much required hype.
35.What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
The most important lesson life ever taught me was actually through my dogs. They might not win a dog beauty contest but in a competition for love, trust, forgiveness and the ability to make me laugh, they would win hands down. They taught me to accept people for what they are, not for how they look like.
36.What do you consider your greatest achievement so far?
Nothing as yet actually and it’s good because this is what keeps me going.
37.Home is where the ………….
Mother is!
38.How would you like to be remembered?
With a smile...
39.Kindly introduce yourself in your mother’s words.
This is how my mother introduces me to everyone: “Bara khamosh rehta hai, is ki biwi buhat khush raheygi kyun ke ye sirf anday khaata hai”