Vasay Chaudhry

Vasay Chaudhry (Urdu: واسع چوہدری‎ ; born on November 12, 1981) is a Pakistani screenwriter, actor, director, producer, host and humorist. He is best known for writing sitcoms and comedy-dramas for Pakistani television. Chaudhry is also noted for hosting a Comedy Show Mazaaq Raat on Dunya News.^[1] His name is sometimes misspelled as Wasay, Wassay or Vassay in print and electronic media.

Biography

Chaudhry was born on 12 November 1981, and lives in Lahore. He completed his A-levels studies from Lahore College of Arts and Sciences. Chaudhry enrolled himself at Government College University (Lahore) for a bachelor's degree but ended up graduating from University of the Punjab Lahore.Later he joined the Lahore School of Economics for pursuing an MBA degree; however he dropped the course after first semester. After LSE, he commenced his MMA (Master's in Multimedia Arts) at National College of Arts and earned the honors.^[2] He married to Mahera Shah in 2008 and the couple have three daughters together.^[3]

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, Bloodbearing".^[4] 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.

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.^[5] It was television adaptation of his theatre play of the same name performed in 2000. Chaudhry wanted to approach Younis Butt to write the series, but the director of the show and his friend Zain Ahmad persuaded him to write it himself, so Chaudhry wrote the show himself.^[6] 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 be, decided to give it a shot and wrote Jutt and Bond."^[6]

In 2010, after establishing himself in 25-minute sitcom business, he wrote his first long TV serial Dolly ki Ayegi Baraat, which turned out to be a huge commercial and critical hit.^[7] He continued writing long TV serials after success of Dolly. Chaudhry in an interview stated that he has started enjoying writing for film and TV more than sitcoms.^[3] Chaudhry's most famous TV plays as a writer include Timmy G, Dolly Ki Ayegi Baraat, Takkay Ki Ayegi Baraat, Inspector Khojee, Kash Tu Mera Baap Na Hota, Yeh Shaadi Nahi Ho Sakti, telefilm Armaan (2013 film) and Jackson Heights (drama). He terms his Eid Special play Kash Tu Mera Baap Na Hota which aired on Geo TV, 2011, as one of his personal favourite work along with Inspector Khojee and Jackson Heights.^[3] In cinematic work, he dubuted with the script and screenplay writing for Main Hoon Shahid Afridi; it was declared a commercial hit of Pakistani cinema, 2013, and garnered accolades from critics and audience alike.^[8][9][10]

Chaudhry has been seen in TV commercials from time to time, prominent ones include MCB ad and Zong.^[11] Chaudhry wrote in Herald (Pakistan) as a film reviewer and critic for a brief period, 2002–03.^[12] Since then he has occasionally contributed towards writing on Pakistani media and cinema in Pakistan's leading newspapers like Pakistan Today The Express Tribune ^[13][14] and The News.

Mantra

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.” ^[15]

Chaudhry believes in self-censorship but insists “My target has always been to entertain people; I am not into art 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”.^[6] 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. Being a strong believer in originality he was quoted saying “It’s mostly foreign concepts that we are picking up and then trying to localise and obviously failing. We need to learn to improvise rather than copy ideas.”^[16]

Reception

Chaudhry has been praised in the Pakistani press as a writer uniquely in touch and comfortable with Punjabi culture.^[17] 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.”^[18]

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 ^[54]
• 2014: Mehman Qadardan as himself ^[55]
• 2014: Cocktail Dawn News as himself
• 2014: Mazaaq Raat as himself^[56]
• 2015: Tonite with HSY as himself^[57]
• 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

Filmography

Theater

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Vasay Chaudhry on IMDb