Yasir Hussain doesn't like being called out for being an ungracious host to Nausheen Shah
Attacking fellow celebrities and finding himself in the middle of a controversy isn't new for actor Yasir Hussain, who often voices what comes to his mind without filtering much out.
This time he has landed himself in hot water over remarks he made about fellow actor Nausheen Shah, who Hussain claims showed up to his wedding without an invite. On the television show Ghabrana Mana Hai, he opened up about what happened.
"I had decided to only call people who are close to me, and who live in the city," he said, mentioning how the invite was on social media and thus, public knowledge.
He said despite only inviting 170 people, more than 200 guests showed up, including Shah, who came to the event "forcefully."
In response, host Vasay Chaudhry took this an opportunity to demean Shah, passing a crude, uncalled for comment on her marital status. "Actually, she herself isn't married so she must have wanted to see what weddings are like," he smirked. Marriage is not the ultimate goal in every woman's life. If the host put in as much energy as he into passing derogatory comments about single women on his own show, his content would probably be much better.
When asked if any other industry peers attended the wedding with "forced invites", the Lahore Se Aagay actor reiterated that she was the only one, cracking up and saying “Buhat hansi arahi hai (I can't stop laughing).”
If this wasn't enough, he then went on to say that he found it amusing how Shah got the most pictures taken at the event. "Even more than us."
Probably realising how crude the conversation sounded, Hussain tried covering it up by saying he was a huge fan of Shah's style — but it was already too late.
Shah, who was reached out to by Galaxy Lollywood after the incident, was obviously appalled at the conversation and horrified at the comments. She said there was no truth to Hussain's claims.
"Would anyone go to someone’s house uninvited? I wouldn’t go to anyone’s house if I wasn’t invited, let alone someone’s wedding,” she said.
“A fool is known by his speech and a wise man by his silence. Yasir called me himself and invited me. I feel so sorry for Yasir because certainly has serious memory issues. I also feel really sorry for Iqra. She is taking one for the team,” she snapped back.
Responding to the criticism, Hussain took to social media to make matters worse and attacked both the public and Shah.
"If I am in the wrong for speaking the truth, then the host asking me questions is also wrong, the television channels airing it are also wrong, and the bloggers who spice up the news and spread it to the public are also wrong, including every person watching and abusing me — the entire system is wrong, its not just me," he posted. His justifications fell flat though because he is the one who made the comments, not the host (he can be held responsible for the terrible things he said), the channel or the public.
He then went on to claim that he had proof to show that Shah was "desperate for an invite" and ended up annoying everyone at the event.
"And where my senior actor Nausheen Shah is concerned, whatever I said was 100% true — that some people showed up forcefully. If someone who said she would silently ignore the situation is now passing comments, then I will gladly show the messages and voice notes, after which I got annoyed and finally sent her the location for the wedding.
"She annoyed everyone when she showed up, and she's annoying everyone now too," he added, calling her "desperate" for wanting to be at his wedding.
Hussain also told Shah to stop using Iqra's name for views. "She felt as sorry for you, as you feel for her, when she first heard your voice notes," he claimed, calling Chaudhry's show a "copy" of Koffee with Karan and asking people to have the same restraint listening to answers given by local celebrities.
"Enjoy the show and move on — don't keep standing on my head," he told his audience.
For someone who ended up choosing to send someone an invitation to his wedding, for whatever reasons, Hussain sure proved himself to be an ungracious host, shaming someone who attended his big day. He wants us to move on from his comments and exercise "restraint" but doesn't want to be held accountable for saying something problematic.
When you're in the spotlight, your words matter, Yasir. People won't move on from the problematic things you say because they're problematic and they hope you learn from your mistakes. But how many mistakes does it take for you to learn to stop saying rude things about people?