A chorus of celebrities have spoken out regarding the process of delayed payments in the Pakistani showbiz industry after veteran actor Syed Muhammad Ahmed and director Mehreen Jabbar revealed their struggles with getting payments on time.
Mehreen Jabbar gave an interview to Drama Pakistani where she spoke about the difficulties of working in the showbiz industry because of how payments are consistently delayed for everyone from actors to directors to even the crew members. She also shed light on the difficult working conditions for crew men who often have to work long hours with low pay and no union protection.
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‘Bohat unprofessional tarekay se ye industry operate karti hai’: Mehreen Jabbar discusses Pakistani production houses and delayed payments
Celebrated screenwriter, director and actor Syed Muhammad Ahmed commemorated Jabbar for speaking about such a censored topic, and released a video statement on his Instagram page where he said most actors refuse to talk about this issue because its considered tacky to discuss your financial situations publicly. But in the current times, speaking about financial struggles has become an absolute necessity.
The ‘Kuch Ankahi’ actor said that production houses would delay payments to the point that actors would have to beg them to receive their money on time.
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More actors have now come up to praise both Ahmed and Mehreen Jabbar, while also revealing their own financial struggles while working in the Pakistani drama industry. Shamoon Abbasi released a statement on his Facebook post, pointing out that it was distressing to see senior actors talk about this issue, and hoped that more production houses would change their ways and respect actors and artists for their hard work.
“A senior actor like Muhammad Ahmed sahab is also a victim of this on-going crime and it is sad to see that till this age you have to struggle to get your payments. Hope this trend ends and the artists and production houses have a more fluent and friendly relation with one another.”
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Actor and director Faizan Khawaja revealed on his Instagram stories that he chose to leave the industry because of the delayed payments issue. He also highlighted that struggling actors like the late Humaira Asghar were unable to pay their bills or rent because production houses did not pay them on time.
“Imagine during covid, the media industry wasn’t clearing past payments and for some those dues go back 2 years in pending payments. I’m not speaking for myself, I’m speaking on behalf of all those people who were dependent on those cheques. Struggling actors like Humaira Asghar don’t end up paying their rent and bills because they don’t get those payments on time and in some cases they don’t get payment at all..”
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Ahmed Ali Butt has also joined the voices by sharing a post on his Instagram stories to discuss how rare it was to witness people in the production industry who would pay artists on time.
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Previously, it was actors Khushhal Khan and Ramsha Khan who had discussed this matter and how delayed payments could impact an actors ability to pay the rent and bills.
“It’s disrespectful not to pay on time because we’re there on time, we’re showing up, we’re doing everything that we can. And for like however a long period of time, nine months a year, we’re giving our best doing a 110% every single day. The least we expect is to pay us on time,” Khsuhhal had stressed.
Ramsha had added that when she is not paid for a project, she simply refuses to show up on set the next day. Both had gone on to discuss that the issue could be overcome had there been more solidarity among Pakistani actors to call out production houses.
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