Gone are the days when actors were afraid of committing to negative roles. In this day and age, modern dramas prove that being bad is where the glory is! With television now exploring more diverse storylines, and the plots of drama serials delving into bolder territory, actors now have the opportunity to essay provocative characters in a manner that might have raised eyebrows in the past.

As they say, fortune favors the brave and in doing justice to their non-typical roles, many stars have experienced a noticeable surge in their popularity. Going beyond their comfort zones has surely paid off big dividends for these performers — here’s a list of such actors from recent popular television serials.

Ayeza Khan as Mehwish 

Let’s begin by looking at the drama that’s driving all of Pakistan crazy every Saturday these days. Yes, we are talking about Meray Paas Tum Ho (MPTH), the success of which is undeniable and most of it is attributed to Ayeza Khan’s incredibly realistic performance as Mehwish.

A versatile actor who has proved her mettle with numerous stellar performances, in this play, week after week Ayeza is driving audiences crazy with Mehwish’s selfishness and infuriating antics — all done to perfection!

Adnan Siddiqui as Shahwar

While talking about MPTH, how can we forget about Shahwar, the suave, smooth, wife-stealing devil of a businessman. He’s done major dirty business for Danish but still reigns over women’s hearts with his sophisticated, beguiling charm. While we have discussed at length why many women swoon over this manipulative villain, it goes without saying that the role has breathed a new life into Adnan Siddiqui’s career and his stardom has reached an all-time high courtesy this negative character.

Bilal Abbas Khan as Wajih

While everyone loved him as sweet, innocent Qasim in O Rangreza, Bilal moved things up a notch with his amazing performance as Wajih in Cheekh. The handsome hunk kept viewers engaged with his stellar performance as women all over the country were confused between pining for him and despising the person he portrayed so flawlessly.

The conflicted emotions he managed to stir up in the audience resulted in the role being possibly the most popular of this talented performer’s career.

Ahsan Khan as Imtiaz

Ahsan Khan almost broke the internet with his performance in Udaari as the sleazy child molester and won many kudos from critics and audiences alike for having the courage to depict the outrightly negative character in the convincing manner he did. The performance single-handedly made everyone hate the character — as well as the actor, which was nothing short of vindication of his tremendous acting skills. Imtiaz will go down in living memory as one of the most hated villains.

Amar Khan as Alizey/Dayan

Dil-e-Gumshuda just ended with great ratings and Alizey, portrayed by Amar Khan was another villain we loved to hate. Episode after episode, her performance as the spoiled, manipulative heiress added a significant amount of fans to her following. Also, it wasn’t Amar’s first role as a baddie, her first drama saw her as the Belapur ki Dayan, a role most actresses were hesitant to take but which earned Amar a Hum awards nomination. The actress herself says she loved playing the role of the ‘hot witch,’ which ended up being her breakthrough performance in the world of showbiz.

Faysal Qureshi as Bashar Momin

One of Faysal Qureshi’s most iconic drama serials, opposite Ushna Shah, showed us his never seen before side. The ever-furious, screaming, scheming Bashar was hard to love but by the end of the serial he won our hearts just like Rudaba won his. The role will go down as one of Faysal’s most popular in recent memory and won the actor much approval from the audience as well as the critics.

Ushna Shah as Nigar

Speaking of Ushna, the Bala star can hold her own in our list of villains as she wowed everyone with her performance as the errant daughter-in-law, Nigar, who we were all actually happy to see locked up in a mental asylum by the last episode. The episode was a raging success in no small part due to Ushna Shah’s tremendous performance where she showed that negative female characters can carry a show through to good ratings!

Asad Siddiqui a Jawad

Asad Siddiqui’s Surkh Chandni came on-air right after Chhalawa and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that his acid-throwing antics garnered him more popularity among audiences than that film did. Hell, it got so popular that he was typecast in virtually the same role for an upcoming drama, only this time, he’s got a knife in his hand instead of a bottle of acid!

Final Word

While these actors had a substantial following before playing a negative character, these roles gave their career the boost they needed, propelling their fame to an all-time high and proving that they are versatile performers. In short, they proved that if they can make us love them as protagonists, they can make us hate them too as antagonists and hence proved, we all love to hate an on-screen baddie.