Vasay Chaudhry

Vasay Chaudhry (

His paternal grandfather, Chaudhary Eid Muhammad, worked in the world of movies before Partition, establishing Lahore's famed Ratan Cinema in 1945, cinema which would later be owned by Chaudhry's father.[2] Because of Partition, Chaudhary Eid Muhammad had to move to Lahore from Ambala, where he ran cinemas as he did in Dehradun as well while he used to do bookings of the shows as far as Delhi.^[3] Chaudhary Eid Muhammad's son-in-law Afzal was the brother of famed villain actor Aslam Pervaiz.^[4]

He completed his A-levels studies from Lahore College of Arts and Sciences. Chaudhry enrolled himself at

He married Mahera Shah in 2008 and the couple have three daughters together.[6]

Career

Chaudhry started his career in 1998 when he did a theatre play called Desperado. He recalls, "I had just a 45-second role in it! So I started off with a role – that calling it a cameo would be a disgrace! I began to pursue theatre seriously when I went to LACAS for my A-levels where I met Zain Ahmed (actress/director Samina Ahmad's son) and acted and assisted him on his play, Blood wedding".^[7] Afterwards, he went on to become head of the Dramatics Club in LACAS and directed an old Urdu play called Bari Dair Meherban Aatay Aatay for the Rafi Peer Theatre International Theatre Festival in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

Chaudhry's first writing venture for television was a sitcom called Jutt and Bond in 2001, starring Fawad Khan in lead role along with Ahmad Ali Butt and Farah Tufail.^[8] It was television adaptation of his theatre play of the same name performed in 2000. Chaudhry approached Younis Butt to write the series; when he refused, Chaudhry wrote the show himself.^[9] He recollected the memories of Jutt and Bond while speaking to a newspaper "So, then I sat down to make the decision and thought about all the terrible dramas I have seen in my life. I thought about how bad could my writing really is, decided to give it a shot and wrote Jutt and Bond."^[9]

In 2010, after establishing himself in 25-minute sitcom business, he wrote his first long TV serial

Chaudhry has been seen in TV commercials from time to time, prominent ones include MCB ad and Zong.^[citation needed] Chaudhry wrote in the Herald (Pakistan) as a film reviewer and critic for a brief period, during 2002–03.^[14] Since then he has occasionally contributed towards writing on Pakistani media and cinema in Pakistan's leading newspapers like Pakistan Today, The Express Tribune^[15][16] and The News.^{[citation needed]}

Chaudhry in one interview explained the reason for writing as "only to bring the people's attention to the various character types that exist amidst us. It is important to be a responsible role model but for most people, it is easier to pick ideas off the internet and ape them."^{[17][failed verification]}

Chaudhry believes in self-censorship but insists "My target has always been to entertain people; I am not into "artistic stuff" as far as my work is concerned, at least not now. Even when I was doing theatre, I wasn't into it. I suppose it's because I am influenced by entertainment films of the 80s and 90s".^[9] He regards Anwar Maqsood and Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi as his gurus in comedy writing and laments the lack of fresh ideas and wit in majority of current comedies.^{[citation needed]} Being a strong believer in originality he was quoted saying "It's mostly foreign concepts that we are picking up and then trying to localize and obviously failing. We need to learn to improvise rather than copy ideas."^{[18][failed verification]}

Reception

Chaudhry has been praised in the Pakistani press as a writer uniquely in touch and comfortable with Punjabi culture.^[19] He is a firm believer of "self-censorship" and calls himself old school when it comes to the views regarding a writer's moral responsibility towards his audiences. He credits this to his training in a pre-cable TV world and asserts that he "refrains from [writing] obnoxious jokes."^{[20][failed verification]}

Television

Writing

Chaudhry has contributed as a writer in various TV shows:

Acting

Hosting

Direction

Production

Guest appearances

• 2011: The Morning Show with Huma Amir Shah as himself^[55]
• 2014: Mehman Qadardan as himself^[56]
• 2014: Cocktail Dawn News as himself
• 2014: Mazaaq Raat as himself^[57]
• 2015: Tonite with HSY as himself^[58]
• 2015: Good Morning Pakistan (Team Jawani Phir Nahi Ani-Eid Special) as himself
• 2015: Jeeto Pakistan (Team Jawani Phir Nahi Ani Special) as himself
• 2016: Salam Zindagi with
  Faysal Qureshi
  as himself
• 2016: Star Iftar with Sarmad Khoosat as himself
• 2020: Say it all with iffat omer

Filmography

Theater

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Vasay Chaudhry at
  IMDb