I have to prove that I am more than just a good-looking actor: Ahsan Khan
For an actor who had earlier lip-synched to the songs of Akhlaque Ahmed in Sangeeta’s Nikaah (1999), Bollywood veteran Udit Narayan (under the pseudonym Faisal Bobby) in Iqbal Kashmiri’s Ghar Kab Aao Gay (2000), Shaan in Mehreen Jabbar’s 2013 remake of the 1968 classic Dil Mera Dharkan Teri and Sonu Nigam in Imran Malik’s Tere Bin Jiya Na Jaye (2005), Ahsan Khan still says that singing for him “happened out of the blue when I sang the OSTs of TV dramas Khoya Khoya Chand (music: Sohail Haider) followed by Marasim (music: Waqar Ali) and then Humdum (music: Sahir Ali Bagga).”
He is then the obvious choice to host the upcoming Indo-Pak collaboration Asia’s Singing Superstar.
“It’s an honour for me to represent Pakistan on an international platform and this competition will be no different," Ahsan said.
"Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan is one of the judges and I am sure the show will bring forward the talents of both the countries. I have always maintained that people should not merge politics with entertainment. Even in the current situation, we shouldn’t even think about boycotting a neighbouring country or its artist community.”
After his decade-long affair with TV dramas, he observes that it has undergone a major change:
“We used to copy Indian soaps shamelessly but now the Indians follow us. I plan to turn to direction as Zee Zindagi has given us a chance at exploration. It has changed the Pakistan drama industry forever and we are at par with Bollywood now. They follow our plays just like we follow Bollywood; Pakistani dramas are a craze in India right now.”
He dances, he sings, he acts, and he is now also producing TV dramas and quite possibly a film — that’s Ahsan Khan for you.
It has been a long journey for Ahsan who started his career from films at the turn of the millennium and has now matured as the leading man in television plays. Married with kids, he says he now has the stability in life to experiment further.
His last two big screen outings [Shehzad Rafique’s Punjabi flick Ishq Khuda (2013) and Syed Faisal Bokhari’s Urdu film Sultanat (2014)] didn’t fare well at the box office.