Published 19 Jul, 2021 04:05pm

Yasir Hussain calls out the entertainment industry for failing Nayla Jaffri

Yasir Hussain is angry that the Pakistani entertainment industry failed one of its golden era actors, Nayla Jaffri. The industry refused to rightfully compensate Jaffri for her work before she passed away on Saturday after a long battle with ovarian cancer that began in 2016.

Despite her constant appeals to production houses to pay her due royalties that she was supposed to receive for years of hard work, Jaffri wasn't monetarily compensated and continued struggling to fund her chemotherapy.

“A lot of other people might not need such money, but when you haven’t been working for a while, and have no support, these things become very important,” she had said, arguing that her last serial had been aired at least six times, yet she hadn't received any money for it.

In his condolence message, Hussain reminded everyone that the industry had failed Jaffri.

"Tell God that the people of this world didn't pay you royalties. RIP fighter," he posted after learning of her passing.

Mikaal Zulfiqar had told Images about who really pockets the money made from reruns in our entertainment industry. "Unfortunately in Pakistan, it’s a one-time deal and the production company on behalf of the channel takes the rights and does whatever they can with them," he had explained, revealing that the rights include airing reruns on local channels, uploading shows on YouTube, selling them to globally acclaimed broadcasting companies such as NBC, or even trading them for dubbing in various languages such as Turkish or Arabic for a larger audience.

However, despite larger audiences enjoying the wonders of Pakistani television in their native vernaculars, actors are not compensated for their work financially and have to do with a one-time payment. "Because we are not a regulated industry, there are so many issues," he had said.

It's truly a shame that our stars are not compensated for their work and when they fall on hard times, they can't even count on their own industry to help them get what is rightfully theirs.

In the same post, Hussain also gave a troll a piece of his mind when they criticised celebrities for the way they mourn their coworkers' deaths.

The fan bashed actors for resuming their lives after someone has passed and Hussain snapped back with "Do you die with the person you're mourning or do you recover too? Just want to know." Well said.

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