Daily Times

Waleed Zaidi is an upcoming Pakistani actor who has successfully dabbled in theatre for the past 13 years and has now also turned his focus to television and film.

With an impressive body of work already under his belt, Waleed Zaidi has multiple projects he is currently working on including the setting up of his own production company, working with Ali Noor on a project that is a mix of music and theatre, working closely with actor/director Ali Tahir and producing an Urdu farcical comedy based on the British TV sitcom ‘Fawlty Towers’.

Zaidi has been planning to adapt ‘Fawlty Towers’ in Urdu for quite a while, but is now almost done with the scripting process. ‘14 Number Mall Road’ was a loose adaptation of the British sitcom, but this is quite different from that. It is a project he hasn’t spoken to many people about but should roll out in December 2018. Being labeled as an English farcical performer, he aims to come up with something on the same lines in Urdu. It’s something he’s dreamt of and has done a lot of homework for and has the right team behind him. The plot revolves around a boutique hotel where things go extremely wrong when a right wing and a left wing politician get there with their own agendas and a food inspector visits on the same day.

Currently, the actor will be appearing as a character named 420 in Ali Tahir’s ‘Mohini Mansion Ki Cinderellayain’ to air very soon

Zaidi was born in Jeddah Saudi Arabia, the “land of opportunity” as he jokingly likes to call it. “The first character I played was a wolf in first grade in Saudi Arabia. I was the villain and the main character. The first time I realised I had some sort of stage presence was at age 10 when I did a solo dance at my eldest brother’s wedding on the Indian song ‘Chayyan chayyan’,” Zaidi says.

Having completed his Bachelors degree in Business Management majoring in Marketing & Finance from King’s College, Zaidi exercised his entrepreneurial skills when he began a children’s wear brand with a friend and is also a partner at a Dubai based company called 11th Experience which does fashion events for the likes of Pakistan Fashion Design Council. Zaidi has also done drama coaching at educational institutions such as Lahore Grammar School, Beaconhouse National University and TNS. In 2007, Zaidi along with two other friends initiated B Theatre Productions under which they have produced many theatre plays, the journey from then to now being quite a successful one.

“Now I am completely focusing on acting which is my true calling,” Zaidi explains.

Currently, Zaidi will be appearing as a character named 420 in Ali Tahir’s ‘Mohini Mansion Ki Cinderellayain’ to air on Bol very soon. Furthermore, “A project initiated by Ali Noor involves me in the theatre aspect of it. I believe it will revolutionise concerts and theatre in Pakistan and it will take off right after Muharram,” Zaidi reveals.

He is currently appearing in ARY’s drama ‘Visaal’, playing a character called Doodhpatti who is a street thief that the main character Akku takes under his wing and they end up forming a duo. Zaidi is in addition focusing on digital content which is the future in his opinion.

“There is a satire based online show called ‘Urrti Khabbar’ which I am producing with Tahir and working on with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Comedy, in which we post two minute content thrice a week,” Zaidi says. He also works as a freelance creative consultant in his spare time, the last project he worked on being the Ramadan campaign for a well known telecommunications company, where he headed the ideation process.

Published in Daily Times, September 29^th 2018.