“Arts and sports should be left alone, it shouldn't be politicised at all.” Pakistani singer and actor Farhan Saeed spoke to Brut about Shah Rukh Khan, Indian-Pakistani dramas and the ban.
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00:00What have I done to you?
00:04I have made you smell like flowers.
00:08Then I went like, Dil Dil Pakistan, Jaan Jaan Hindustan.
00:12And when I did that, the entire crowd went crazy.
00:15And then Shah Rukh Khan being Shah Rukh Khan, he started dancing with me.
00:20Pakistani artists cannot come to India.
00:24Indian artists cannot come to Pakistan.
00:26But our shows are trending there.
00:28Their songs are trending here.
00:35So there was this 20th anniversary of Aap Ki Adalat, I guess, in Delhi.
00:40You know, Rajat Sharma ji.
00:42So there were very few people that were invited and they invited us too.
00:47And I was there at the party and Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan were there.
00:51They asked me to sing a song, Halka Halka Saroor.
00:54So I just took a mic.
00:55I started singing Halka Halka Saroor.
00:57And the next thing I saw, because I close my eyes when I sing.
01:00So in between, when I opened my eyes, he was right next to me dancing.
01:03So that's Shah Rukh Khan for you.
01:05You know, he's so humble.
01:06And then I hugged him and I invited him officially.
01:09I said, please come to Pakistan.
01:10There are a lot of people that love you
01:13and they would, you know, want to see you there right in front of them.
01:17And then Shah Rukh Khan being Shah Rukh Khan, he started dancing with me.
01:20And it was a great night.
01:27I used to be in India twice a month because we used to go for concerts
01:31a lot in India.
01:32I've been to the places in India where probably Indian has never
01:36visited or never went there.
01:38Me as Jal and then me as a solo artist.
01:42I went to every part of India.
01:44India is not something new for me, but
01:48I'm really sad how this whole political thing just undermines
01:52the arts and sports between the two countries.
01:56And obviously, till these
01:59these things get normal between these two countries,
02:03I think the sentiments of people and everything, it all goes hand in hand.
02:08I really wish the people of two countries meet each other,
02:12should come to know about each other, because I'm one of those people
02:15who have hung out with both the people of both the countries.
02:20I know what they feel for each other.
02:23And I am just speechless that how can these two countries not be friends?
02:27So I'm one of those people who really think Indian Pakistan people should meet.
02:32First, that happens and everything is going to happen.
02:35So obviously, I just pray for that first.
02:43I probably think any artist would say that
02:46this arts and sports should be left alone.
02:51It shouldn't be politicized at all,
02:54because if you do that, then there is no link.
02:58Like you don't leave anything that people can link with
03:03and, you know, relate to.
03:05But having said that, this is not 90s.
03:08This is not 80s. This is not 70s.
03:10It's a it's it's a global village.
03:13Now, internet.
03:15I mean, you know,
03:17Pakistanis, artists, artists cannot come to India.
03:21Indian artists cannot come to Pakistan.
03:23But our shows are trending there.
03:25Their songs are trending here.
03:32I think the treatment of both the dramas of both the countries are really different.
03:35I mean, in India,
03:39I mean, even the Indian people, they make fun of what they're doing.
03:42I mean, so many close ups and those flash and everything.
03:44But if they're still doing it, I mean, people are watching it.
03:47So they are getting the eyeballs.
03:49So that's that kind of entertainment, what they're doing.
03:51And people are watching it.
03:53I think Pakistani TV was always very close to what Netflix and OTT
03:56people are doing right now.
03:58Very realistic based and real locations.
04:01We don't shoot in the studios.
04:02The drama we just did with Hum TV Jhok Sarkar,
04:06we had to shoot in desert.
04:08And I used to go and live in Bahawalpur.
04:12I lived there for 45 days.
04:13So we don't go in an air conditioned studio and do that.
04:16So I think the feel of that real location
04:20and the characters obviously
04:24use little less jewelry.
04:27And I think
04:31the scripts and our
04:34stories are close to what is actually going on in the society.
04:38And, you know, anybody and everybody can relate to what is happening.
04:42Sometimes it's most of the times it's
04:46house politics.
04:49Other than there are some stories that I remember,
04:53my mother and our women here used to watch Indian soaps.
04:58But then, you know, 150, 450 episodes,
05:02nobody can just make sense out of 450 episodes.
05:05So I think there are different
05:08mediums of entertainment.
05:10And there are audience for that, too.
05:12And there's an audience for this, too.
05:16There's this song of ours that's, you know,
05:19Dil Dil Pakistan, Jaan Jaan Pakistan.
05:21So one time we were performing in Delhi and, you know,
05:25we were performing other than the crowd wasn't almost 30,000 people.
05:29So, you know, when you're on stage and that because of that rush, everything,
05:33you do crazy things.
05:35So my band didn't know what I'm about to do.
05:37So I started singing Dil Dil Pakistan.
05:41And because it doesn't start like this, you know,
05:44and because it doesn't start like this, it starts with Aisi Zameen or Asamaan.
05:49So when I started this, my band started looking at me that what is he doing?
05:52We are standing in India. And what is it?
05:54So I just told them that, don't worry, I know what I'm doing.
05:56So I started like this.
05:58And then I went like Dil Dil Pakistan, Jaan Jaan Hindustan.
06:02And when I did that, entire crowd went crazy.
06:05They started singing with us and everything.
06:07So that happened. And my band said, well done.
06:10Wow. What a great, you know, thing to do.
06:13And, you know, everybody was so happy and everything.
06:15So then it became the ritual we do.
06:17So we went to Calcutta and we did the same thing.
06:21And we didn't know that, you know, in Calcutta,
06:26they probably did this language.
06:27Their first language is Bengali.
06:29So we didn't know that they wouldn't understand what we are saying.
06:32So when we said Dil Dil Pakistan, Jaan Jaan Hindustan, the crowd enjoyed it.
06:37But 20, 25 people just gathered
06:41behind the stage and they were quite mad.
06:43And we said, what happened?
06:46I mean, what happened?
06:48So they thought that we are saying Dil Dil Pakistan, Jaan Jaan Hindustan.
06:53So that was quite funny.
06:55And when they got to know that, what actually we were saying,
06:58it was Jaan Jaan Hindustan.
07:00So it was quite funny, actually.
07:03It was then from the next concert, we started doing Dil Dil Hindustan,
07:06Jaan Jaan Pakistan.
07:08If there's any confusion, it shouldn't be like that.