Earlier today, actress Saboor Aly uploaded a video of a guy cleaning the windows of the set she was shooting at, along with Saheefa Jabbar and Affan Waheed, on her Instagram. It looked like the actors were making fun of the cleaning guy which was just not in good taste. Affan seemed a little uncomfortable with the mockery too. As soon as social media picked on the video, it got abuzz with criticism for Saboor Aly and her co-stars.
https://twitter.com/junaidakram83/status/1126938472441425921
Recently, however, this tweep took to Twitter to explain that the actress was, in fact, not making fun of the window cleaner and that the man in the video is actually their assistant director, Ehsan Shaikh.
Um that is Ehsan Shaikh, he is not a window cleaner he is infact an Assistant Director. I worked with him on my drama for Urdu1 too.. so she isn't making fun of a window cleaner however yes, shouldn't joke about any work but they are friends. He is an ASSISTANT DIRECTOR.
— Hifza Khan (@hifzakhann) May 10, 2019
However, she did then go on to mention that the joke can still be considered distasteful because of its underlying classism.
Even if she isn't ridiculing him, it is still distasteful. One shouldnt make fun of any work that someone may be doing, I appreciate Affan for saying"Mehnat kr rha hai".Just goes to show how we think of such jobs as not worthy enough, says a lot about class difference & privilege
— Hifza Khan (@hifzakhann) May 10, 2019
What Saboor and Saheefa have to say
We called up Saboor and Saheefa to ask what they had to say about the whole incident and they confirmed that the man in question is, in fact, their associate director and that it was an inside joke.
“I respect everyone and I can’t even think of disrespecting someone like that. He is our friend and it was an inside joke. People don’t even know the whole story and they are drawing conclusions,” told Saboor.
“Moreover, I came across some posts about this and people are posting vile comments, bringing my family into the equation and what not. You know we are people too, we also get affected by such comments. Also, if you want to write an article about it at least contact me first, hear what I have to say before coming to the wrong conclusion,” added Saboor.
We then contacted Saheefa to hear what she had to say:
“I have just come back home from the shoot and my phone is blowing up with all these comments. Ehsan bhai is our friend, we work together with him for 12 hours every day. Basically, he is the associate director and this was not part of his job. However, since we were short on time and the window had to be cleaned he did the job and we were joking around because that is what we do on sets, we joke around, we are like a family!”
Listening to the two actresses it does seem like that all was said and done in good fun. What do you think of the whole incident? Let us know in the comments.