LAHORE - Superstar Iffat Omar introduced her show ‘Say It All With Iffat Omar’ on Najam Sethi’s YouTube channel and the senior Pakistani actor Noman Aijaz was her first guest.
He talked about how media has transitioned and grown into something worse than what it used to be and he also touched upon the recent controversies and trends including Firdous Jamal -Mahira Khan Controversy, Mohsin and Fatema scandal, Lux Style Awards and much more.
Towards the beginning of the show, Noman Aijaz opens up about the recent controversy involving Firdous Jamal, Mahira Khan, and Momina Duraid.
Aijaz has always been one of the sanest voices in our media industry and his message for actors in Pakistan is to stop battling it out. For all those who don’t know about the controversy - The veteran actor Firdous Jamal voiced his opinion about Mahira Khan being too old on screen and questioning her success as an actress.
Aijaz said we should end this culture of pitting actor against actor and we should stop giving fodder to gossip columns for the sake of TRPs and publicity.
The actor added for Mahira; “She kept herself really well and she looks great on-screen”
However, he believes that banning a senior actor like Firdous Jamal for his opinion is disrespectful, it shows we’re feeding on the same intolerance we see on social media everyday. Instead of trending clips where controversial statements have been made, we should hide each other’s flaws for the betterment of our industry.
Next Aijaz addressed Mohsin Abbas’s domestic violence scandal that had spread over social media like wildfire. Unlike most of social media, Aijaz say, “it takes two to make a quarrel.”
In essence, Aijaz’s point is that most celebrities condemning Mohsin Abbas Haider’s abusive inhumane behavior are only doing it because it is safe and makes good PR for them. One shouldn’t make a judgment without knowing the other side of the story.
For Noman Aijaz, the media industry has transitioned and grown into becoming very ‘number’ conscious – be it in the form of social media followers, PR, ratings etc. Addressing the same, Noman shared his opinion with Iffat on one of the most-talked about events – Lux Style Awards.
For him, even though the award show has been trending on the social media, it has lost its prestige. Elaborating, he explains that the award show gives more respect to the stars that have a good social media following as opposed to theveteran celebrities.
In his own words; “An award will hold its prestige only if it is handed down to you by veteran actors, actresses or any personality who you have always admired or looked up to as a role model.”
The one-hour episode of ‘Say It All with Iffat Omar’ ended with Aijaz emphasizing on the rise of intolerance in our society, a disease that’s eating us all up like anything and has shaken the very basis of our society. For him, “our society is stuck between QTV and MTV.”
All in all, the show was very insightful. Iffat Omar provides fellow celebrities a platform to share their views without the fear of getting trolled or bullied, platforms like these are much needed in our industry where everything is sugar coated because of fear.We can’t wait to see who’s next on her show.