Getting To Know Rising Star – Wahaj Ali
Rising star Wahaj Ali talks forging signatures, friendship and playing Shariq on Hum TVs new television show Ehd-e-Wafa
Your show Ehd-e-Wafa has generated a great response quite immediately, how do you feel right now?
It’s awesome, it feels great when you’re getting a response. The best part is that the audience is engaging. I think this the first time in a long time that a shows central focus isn’t on women but instead on a group of young men. We knew that was a risk going in but the feedback has been great so far.
The cast of the show include so many talented actors/actresses, how has it been working with them?
You must have even noticed the chemistry amongst us on screen, that’s exactly how good our chemistry was off screen. We were practically living together for so long, we would do everything together too so that was fun and a very enjoyable experience.
Any interesting things that happened on set?
Murree’s cold got us all. Someone or the other was always sick. I remember there was a point when all of us got sick together.
Other than that there was also this particular scene, where everyone’s chasing me. While running some of us ended up colliding and falling on the street, it wasn’t ideal but we definitely had a good laugh.
The show focuses on friendship and college life, how would you describe your college life?
My college life was pretty much exactly like the one on the show. I shared the same comradery with my friends and when I came back home, I kept a special gettogether just for them because I had missed them so much.
How did you get into character?
It wasn’t hard getting into character but we had to be very careful to keep our characters identities induvial. Our director Saife Hassan has been so great, he helped out a lot by making sure that even the details in our characters had definition. Each characters body language, attitude and way of speaking, varied depending on their family background. To represent that was slightly tricky but I think it’s been working well so far.
Did you ever get into trouble as a student?
What haven’t I done as a student, from ringing peoples door bells and running away, cheating and then blaming someone else, messing up and framing a friend, I was a pretty mischievous kid but I was also a smart kid. I was very good at forging my parents signatures, so whenever I got into trouble and the teachers complaint to my parents by writing a note in my diary, I would always just sign it myself and get away with it.
How would you define friendship?
I think friendship is understanding. The kind of friends I have, I can meet them after nine years but we will always pick up where we left off, we don’t even feel like there was a gap and I think that comes from understanding
I think a friend should be honest as well. A friend should be able to hold you accountable when you’re being a bad person or when you do something wrong. Those two qualities are important for me.
The show gives us very “Alpha Bravo Charlie” vibes, which was very popular during the 90s, what shows did you like watching, growing up?
I loved Alpha Bravo Charlie! There was also a drama called Dhuwan, I enjoyed watching that a lot as well.
Once while I was working with Noman Ijaz sahib he told me that look, this is a very observation based profession, to understand acting you should watch old shows and you’ll learn quite a few things from them. Hawayein, Andhera Ujala are some of the many dramas I keep going back to.
What do you think is the underlying message of the show?
The show is called Ehd e wafa, and wafa has been demonstrated within the friendships, but what’s more important is wafa with our country.
Every institute in our country plays a significant role but how they come together as a whole, has a huge impact on the success of the country. That connection is something that has been explored brilliantly within the plot and is definitely in my opinion, the core message of the show.
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