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Fresh off the success of Zanjeerain, Danyal Zafar’s next project, Raqaas, is already airing — and Nadia Afgan is not a fan. After she said his latest character looks a bit deflated, Zafar has fired back in his own cryptic way.

He shared a post on Instagram on Tuesday with one of his signature cryptic captions, saying he had earned a new compliment. The post had pictures and a video of Zafar from the show’s set.

In his caption, the actor wrote that the “difference between fictional characters and real human beings needs to be established” because it appears to be “missing” for most people. He also seemed to explain the way he chooses his projects, keeping the story’s meaning a primary criterion.

Zafar said he took on Raqaas because it dealt with “suppression of expression” women and girls face in society, especially in their homes.

On September 20, Afgan was appearing on the drama review show Kya Drama Hai when she compared Zafar’s characters in Raqaas and Zanjeerain. She said the latest one was like Zanjeerain’s Sarbuland if he was like “like when you take the air out of a balloon and it shrivels”.

When she pushed on, referring to him as a two-day-old birthday balloon, Nadia Khan piped up to say he looked like a tire with insufficient air pressure.

Afgan said she felt there was an attempt to paint Zafar’s character as a brooding, arrogant hero similar to Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice or Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. However, she said the dialogue for the role didn’t fit that description.

She said Zafar was just new to acting and that it would take him a little bit to polish himself.

During the programme, the participants praised the last episode of Zanjeerain, with Afgan even commending Zafar and his co-star Sajal Ali for delivering their best performance in the show during the final episode.

Zafar had a few more bones to pick in his caption, where he called for an end to “the toxicity surrounding ‘shipping culture’”. He also regretted how digital advancement had driven people away from each other when it was supposed to bring them together.

In a statement that may or may not be aimed at Afgan, Zafar said, “Kindly adjust your frequency.”