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A borderline case!
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Nawazish Ali on the show “Begum”, starting this Saturday
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Photo: Sandeep Saxena
Watch me Nawazish Ali in New Delhi
“Nawaz Sharif has come back after an exile. There must be some wounds waiting to be nursed.” Cheeky! Begum Nawazish Ali calls ‘her’ style edgy. Here her is in quotation marks because Begum is a transsexual, or simply a cross-dresser.
Popular in Pakistan for her chat show where she does candid interviews of people from different fields, Nawazish Ali has crossed borders yet again, and from this Saturday will reach our living rooms with her new chat show Begum on 9X. The first episode will feature Shekhar Suman and Mandira Bedi.
Having already interviewed John Abraham, Nawazish has a long wish list that includes M.S. Dhoni, Rekha, L.K. Advani and I.K. Gujral. “Dhoni because I like hard hitting ways and Gujral for I really admire his doctrine of peace between the two countries.”
Right to claim
Nawazish is not all about quotable quotes that get repetitive after a while. She has a fair degree of political acumen as well.
“I feel India has no right to claim to be a guardian of democracy when they supported a dictator in the neighbouring country.” Does she mean India should have interfered in the internal affairs of Pakistan? “No, but it should not have dealt with a dictator, as if he was the representative of Pakistan. Even when Musharraf declared Emergency, India only made feeble noises.”
She avers the confrontation between the two countries is only at the government level.
Not a closed society
“At the people’s level there is no problem. That Pakistan is not a closed society is reflected from the fact that a majority of Pakistanis have no problem with my chat show. Youngsters cheer me on the streets.”
On the longstanding row over Indian artistes meeting with rude reception in Pakistan, while Pakistani artistes are welcomed with open arms here, Nawazish says she felt really bad when Javed Akhtar was denied a visa.
“But again it is something that was done at the government level. The common man loves to listen to his songs. Then there is the economic angle. Indian artistes are so expensive that not many in Pakistan can afford them, and then there are chances of their taking over the fledgling entertainment industry in Pakistan.”
Originally named Ali Saleem, Nawazish feels she has an Anarkali or Noorjehan inside her. “I don’t believe in orientations. I am very fluid as far as my gender is concerned. It’s like one day you like oranges, another day you like apples.” But the process is not as simple as eating fruits. Her make-up takes almost three hours every day.
ANUJ KUMAR
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