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Veteran actor Hina Dilpazeer recently revealed that she was only paid the salary for a single actor despite playing 25 characters in the ARY drama Quddusi Sahab Ki Bewah that aired from 2012 to 2014.

In an appearance on Ahmed Ali Butt’s podcast Excuse Me, Dilpazeer said initially, she was asked to do three or four characters as part of the show’s script, however, every time the showrunners couldn’t find someone to act for a role, she would be made to do it.

“How was I supposed to do that? How many faces could I make?” she asked, adding that the director and writer would repeatedly request that she play multiple characters.

Dilpazeer stated that the showrunners were testing her patience and she hated how much patience she had. The Bulbulay actor maintained that she was made to play 25 characters, including five male characters, over the course of the show. She recalled that for one particular episode, she played all the characters for “experience”.

“I remember it took us two to three days to shoot that episode. There were three of me sitting in the rickshaw. I didn’t watch that episode out of fear,” Dilpazeer said with a chuckle.

When asked by the host why she didn’t demand money, the actor maintained that when she did, she would have to listen to the producer’s stories of poverty.

“When the show ended, he [the producer] would chase after me, asking if we should go to another channel but I was not interested,” she said.

Dilpazeer stated that the show came to an end very abruptly when the TV channel decided that the next episode would be the last. She continued that they had no idea why the show was “suddenly shut down”, adding that they had done almost 400 episodes.

Talk about being underpaid and overworked!