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Iqra Aziz and Shuja Asad opened up about ‘toxic’ heroes in dramas during an interview with Something Haute. They were there to speak about their upcoming serial Paradise, directed by Aziz’s husband Yasir Hussain and set to premiere on Express TV.

During the interview they hinted that the plot revolves around a grand lie being disclosed and shared details about the cast.

The series also stars Gul-e-Rana, Rehan Sheikh, Umer Alam, Maham Aamir, Aoun Ali Khan, Atiqa Odho and Bilal Yousufzai, among others.

The interviewer brought up the recurring theme of ‘toxic’ heroes in dramas that seem to be popular among the audience despite the glaring red flags they present. “When it comes to toxic characters, you have a lot of margin to perform,” said Asad. “But I do believe it is high time for heroes to come back to the Pakistani drama industry. We’re done with the anti-heroes. We’re done with the villains. A hero is kind and gentle and helps people. He saves the heroine — at least those are the heroes I saw in my childhood.”

Asad, who plays Taimoor in the upcoming serial, added that Hussain would tell him to channel his inner Shah Rukh Khan to get into character.

When asked to define a hero, Aziz said the man must show a range of emotions. “It’s important to show a person on the screen who has all the emotions. He gets angry, cries, gets jealous — he feels and expresses all the humanly possible emotions that are necessary in every person’s life. We’ve changed the environment for girls through dramas, and we’ve sent a message that things can be done a specific way, and I think a few things have changed in our society. We should do the same for boys.”

Aziz said that Paradise has a lot more than just a romantic-comedy, even though that’s the vibe it gives off. “When Yasir showed me the concept, I said I really want to do this,” she said. Paradise is Hussain’s first full-fledged project as a producer, which, according to Aziz, was among the reasons she wanted to work on it. “The set was a home for me,” she added.

For Asad, Paradise has been a break from the more “intense” dramas he has starred in, including Khaie, Tan Man Neelo Neel, and Aye Ishq e Junoon.

When asked why she has been selective with her projects, Aziz said it’s mainly to maintain a work-life balance. “If you want to be sane, and you don’t want to do a lot of back and forth, working on two sets, it’s better to stick to one project because that in itself takes a long time.”

She added that now that her son Kabir is growing up, she wants to spend more time with him. “Before going to [the set of] Paradise, my priority was that I will drop Kabir to school first and then come to the set,” Aziz said. “I told my team if there’s a gap of five, 10 or 30 minutes between my call time and Kabir’s drop-off time, I will take that because my priority is to drop him off in the morning.”