Daily Times

One of the most popular Ramazan shows this year has been ‘Dolly Darling’, a sitcom written by Dr Younis Butt and directed by Muhammad Iftikhar Iffi.

The sitcom has been produced by 7th Sky Entertainment and stars Nadia Khan, Ali Rizvi, Uroosa Siddiqui and Aijaz Aslam.

Nadia Khan’s comeback in the industry was characterised by serious drama serials with tragic stories. It was not expected that she would show her jolly side once again because the kind of humorous stuff which Khan did back in the 1990s is not made these days. However, talking exclusively to Daily Times, the protagonist of the sitcom stated her reasons for choosing the script.

“It is a different kind of comedy, revolving around the relationship between a husband and a wife and depicting a unique nature, that of Dolly. It has no vulgar dialogues, which is the most attractive thing that I found in the script,” she said.

The actress also told that extra efforts have gone into the making of this character, not only in terms of her dialogues and actions, but also in costume designing and that the character of Dolly has influenced her in real life. The lively character has changed her way of looking at things and has given a positive aura to her personality.

“The long hours of the sitcom’s shooting have affected me to the extent that when I go for shopping, I look at things from Dolly’s perspective and think if a certain pair of shoes or a certain dress that might look good on Dolly. I’ve become a living Dolly who can extract happiness out of every little thing and this is something that I believe everyone needs. Staying happy on the little that we have can make our lives beautiful,” she said.

Khan also shared a fact that despite her ample work in various fields, people have started to recognise her as Dolly. She told how both in Pakistan and Dubai, she came across fans calling her by the name she has in the sitcom.

“It’s incredible how people can forget your previous popular projects and start recognising you by your latest work. I believe it’s now that I’ve earned the respect as a good performer. I faced a lot of criticism for my two serials when I made my comeback but I’ve realised that the mistakes that were pointed out were very helpful in improving myself. My fans’ criticism has helped me a lot and that tells how people being harsh on social media are not always discouraging you, but are guiding you in a subtle manner,” she maintains.

One interesting fact that came out was that Khan wasn’t that enthusiastic to sign up for Dolly before.

“Sitcoms don’t work here. This was something I was repeatedly told and was asked to continue with serious drama serials and avoid comedy. What I believe is that they haven’t worked because we’ve produced very few quality sitcoms. We hesitate while spending on sitcoms, cut off the budget and do not properly pay the actors. Thanks to the producers of ‘Dolly Darling’, Abdullah Kadwani and Asad Qureshi, who’ve spent the budget of a proper serial on this project,” she says.

Khan encourages other drama makers to follow suit and make quality sitcoms by giving the example of ‘Friends’ and ‘Two & a Half Men, which are the two most-watched American programmes and which are sitcoms at the same time.

“Pakistanis have the ability to make excellent comedies. Our humour is good. The only thing required are writers penning comedies whole-heartedly and producers taking those comedies seriously,” she said.

People who have watched Khan in ‘Bandhan’, ‘Manzilein’, ‘Pal Dou Pal’ and ‘Jaane Kyun’ might wonder why ‘Dolly Darling’ is being considered something new on the actress’s part. It must be noted that Khan’s works from the ’90s were tragi-comic serials in which her characters were no doubt jolly, but always went through trials as a result of immaturity. As far as ‘Dolly Darling’ is concerned, it’s a comic work through and through and it’s when one watches it that one sees how throughout the episodes, the characters continue to make the viewers laugh. This is why when Khan gave an interview to Imran Abbas on a private channel, she told that people might believe that comedy is something spontaneous for her, but it requires a lot of energy.

The writer is a freelance journalist and can be reached at m.ali_aquarius85@yahoo.com