Renowned actor, comedian, and host, Yasir Hussain’s telefilm Help me Durdana is all set to release on Eid this year. The actor most well-known for his role in the Karachi Se Lahore film franchise is now in the midst of extreme social media backlash for some insensitive comments regarding the transgender community, that he recently made. 

What started it?

A few days ago, Yasir posted a picture for his 714k Instagram followers, where he was dressed in feminine attire, captioned “Help me Durdana … coming soon on ARY digital.”

Many people including myself thought that he was all set and ready to play a transgender character. Seeing that, many people got offended over the fact that why wasn’t a transgender given a chance to play a transgender character? But that’s not all, with some people starting to question Yasir, things got a bit out of hand when Yasir gave some questionable clap backs.

With one guy asking “Why don’t you guys hire ACTUAL transgenders?” and Yasir responding with “matlab apko job chahiye?”, the whole thing started to get out of control. 

Not the first time, though

When it comes to controversies and edgy jokes being blown out of proportions, Yasir is no newcomer. Just two years ago at the 5th annual Hum Awards, Yasir, who was hosting, while referring to Ahsan Khan (who had just played a child molester in the tv serial Udaari) said “itna khoobsurat child molester, kaash mein bhi bacha hota”

YIKES! Anyway, Yasir gave a couple more similar clap backs which were followed by a heavy social media backlash. 

Yasir’s clarification

Although the damage had been done, Yasir tried to clarify in yet another post on Instagram yesterday that he is not playing a transgender character. His character in the telefilm will have to play his own mother for some reason which we’ve yet to see when it comes out.

To put it in Yasir’s own words, “I just wanted to clear the misconceptions that some people have about my recent role. The images that you have seen over social media of me wearing a Saree are for a project in which I am playing the role of my mother. I am not playing the role of a transgender and by no means do I ever want to disrespect a gender that I have immense regard for.”

Yasir further mentioned that when the show is out, the audiences will be able to “understand the character better and will know that my role has nothing to do with humiliating or mocking anyone.”

“We as public figures receive a lot of retaliation/negative comments and just because I chose to reply to a comment with a joke does not in any way mean that I have no respect for a certain gender. Other negative comments that we receive are never made a controversy out of so this also shouldn’t be. It is just a character intended for humor and nothing else,” Yasir further added.

Even after the clarification, people were mad at him for not apologizing. Some are saying that his insensitive and rude replies are the main reason for the backlash and that he should apologize. One thing that’s imperative to note here is that many male actors have played transgender in the past. Imran Ashraf, very recently, is playing one in Alif Allah Aur Insaan yet there was nothing for him but well-deserved praise.

Does this situation really warrant all the hate and backlash that Yasir is getting? Or was it just an edgy comedian doing what he does best and people are blowing his jokes out of proportions? We’ll let you guys be the judge. Let us know in the comments what you think of the whole situation.