…Grip Service jesy tau fikar Kaisy…channel change…kuch chupaya nahi, sar jhukaya nahi…har dil, har din…another thumb-press on remote and you see super star Shaan in another different Television Commercial (TVC) promoting a brand of cumin cookies. Shaan truly has invaded our TV screens and is smartly cashing his re-identified stardom being sourced out of the rebirth of Pakistani cinema to its ceiling.
This invasion is not merely limited to the small screen, but very naturally stretches towards the big screen too, the film industry. There are at least ten Pakistani films in their production and post production stages, slated to release this year. Out of those ten, the super star rules half the figure; five films as the lead. At least fifty percent of what is being produced today in local film industry have got Shaan doing what he does the best.
The actor, with the reinvention of Pakistan film industry, has very timely reinvented himself as well, a new persona, an updated fan base, a figure that equally sells in film market, consumer market and in the smoke-filled, chilly conference room of a multinational conglomerate looking for a face to brand its product with.
But is it really a good thing to be dosed just too much of Shaan? Is it healthy for the industry itself? There are times when you get fed up of watching the same face again and again in every other ad. Remember the days when it used to be Shaan-Saima-Moammar Rana in every other film, and since Syed Noor used to hold a very similar position in the directorial world as Shaan does today for filmmakers and brands, every second film had Syed Noor label on it. A time came when the formula just stopped paying off, it ended at Syed Noor’s last such directorial effort, Jugni.
It is in reality a sad state that the film industry in particular hasn’t been able to sell itself beyond Shaan, there is a real dearth of a fresh sell-able face in the country.
Not much is bad though, things have gradually started evolving out of conventionalism, new identities are being hunted and new stars are being created; Hamza Ali Abbasi, Ali Zafar, Fawad Khan and many other rising stars, in both the gender camps, are shifting the paradigm altogether, in the world of TVCs, films, and entertainment on whole. May they rightly take their roots in this drought.
