Shazli Hafeez Khan better known as Shaz Khan is a Pakistani–American actor. He made his film debut in the Pakistani feature film ‘Moor’. Later he worked in Mehreen Jabbar’s ‘Dobara Phir Se’ and recently played a key role in ‘Parwaaz Hai Junoon’ (PHJ).
Shaz learned acting from Studio Drama School, the same place where alumni Bradley Cooper graduated 10 years ahead of him. Shaz worked in the independent film scene in America as well as in theatre before venturing out to make his own independent short films. while vacationing in Pakistan some years back, Shaz randomly auditioned and get the lead role in Jami’s critical masterpiece ‘Moor,’ which started his connection back to his childhood in Pakistan. He received critical appraise for the role of troubled Pashtun Ehsaan. Recently he was seen playing an interesting role on the big screens as squadron leader Nadir Kirmani, in the local blockbuster PHJ and now he is appearing in a Hum TV drama, ‘Lamhe,’ as the unpredictable Hashir.
Shaz while vacationing in Pakistan some years back randomly auditioned and get the lead role in Jami’s critical masterpiece ‘Moor,’ in which the actor received critical appraise for the role of a troubled Pashtun
Talking about his childhood, Shaz says: “At the age of five, I came back to Pakistan with my parents. We stayed here for over 6 years and in this duration I developed a strong connection with the country and this bonding with the motherland help me to stay here and to work in the showbiz industry wholeheartedly.” In the early part of his career, Shaz worked in a bank, while simultaneously doing acting. Later he decided to take up acting as full time career and took admission in Actors Studio Drama School in New York.
About his first experience as an actor, he says “I never planned about entering the entertainment industry but an incident that happened few years ago brought me here. I was in Pakistan on my vacations, when I met Jami and his team .He discussed with me the script of his movie ‘Moor’ which I found incredibly interesting. I was later asked to give an audition. I took the script and after two days of preparation, gave my audition and was selected. Shaz added that working in ‘Moor’ was a wonderful experience. “During the film’s shooting, I worked with actors who inspired me with their originality to become a better actor.”
Talking about the recently released PHJ, Shaz said that the project was a great experience, “I will never get to play such a character in the future. As a child, I admired my maternal uncle who was an air force pilot. I am very proud of the Pakistan Air Force. When you fly an airplane, you don’t have any margin of error. I learnt a lot from the air force personnel during the shooting of PHJ.
These days, Shaz is appearing on Hum TV’s drama ‘Lamhe’. Talking about this project, he says : I am playing role of Hashir in Lamhe. This is another challenging project and I am excited to perform in this drama. Shaz said “In drama we want that a character to be different at the end and Lamhe is a drama in this direction” Talking about the two mediums, television and cinema, he said that TV is getting better and better. Our stories on TV are good. Moreover if we experiment more on visual effects our TV serials can get a further edge.
Talking about cinema, Shaz says: “Filmmakers need to study whom they are catering to and need to analyse the demography of their viewers and focus on their likes and dislikes.” Answering a question about the stories depicted in local movies, Shaz said that we need to focus more on the plots of our movies. Comedy is one genre on which we are focusing nowadays but there are other genres also. Action, Drama and Thriller are genre no one has touched yet. I hope people in future make movies in these genres in the future. I am excited about the young film makers who are developing their own stories.”
Shaz said that his favorite actor is Al Pacino because he becomes the character he is playing. He also mentioned that he takes admiration from Amir Khan for the kind of stories he creates.
Published in Daily Times, September 3rd 2018.