Listening to artist, singer and playwright Bushra Ansari speak about her life experiences and encounters as part of the Sindh Madressatul Islam University’s (SMIU) Popular Lecture Series recently was a treat for both, students and staff of the university.

Ansari spoke from her heart about several issues such as growing up in Lahore amidst intellectuals and revolutionary activists, motherhood, work, humour, Pakistani dramas and so much more. She shared that she started work as a puppeteer with Farooq Qaiser in Islamabad, then came to Karachi to work with Moin Akhtar and Anwar Maqsood. All three were and are legends in their own right. Ansari also said that humour has seen a drastic change over the years.

“People have started laughing at vulgarity. Content creators and influencers, too, these days think that insolent behaviour is amusing, but it is not. We used to make people laugh with simple and clean humour. We still do. If our content creators are successful today with this kind of content, then it is our failure,” she pointed out.

Coming to the Pakistani drama industry, she said that production houses see dramas as an investment. They want to profit from them so they only make what sells. “That’s why stories are being repeated and there is hardly anything new coming out,” she said. “But despite this, our dramas have realism. They don’t have that in India where they may show women laden with makeup and jewellery working in kitchens,” she laughed.