Pakistan’s Centennials may have all the cool gadgets, Netflix and Coke Studio to fill up their pop culture lexicon but none of that can beat the warmth and excitement of Ainak Wala Jin – the much-adored, 1993 children’s TV series that remained the highlight of our days for almost four years.
Pakistan’s Centennials may have all the cool gadgets, Netflix and Coke Studio to fill up their pop culture lexicon but none of that can beat the warmth and excitement of Ainak Wala Jin – the much-adored, 1993 children’s TV series that remained the highlight of our days for almost four years. However, Jin Nastoor, who would light up our faces with his antics every now and then, is not the happiest person right now having gone through some tough times in the past few years. Actor Shahzad Qaiser, who essayed the role, took to social media and wrote a heartfelt note asking his fans to help him return to the small screen.
Qaiser described how he produced a revised version of the children’s classic using latest technology and was offered a slot on PTV but as the day of signing the contract approached, he was told that the offer letter was fake and they no longer want to run the show.
“Those days, my co-actors were in a very dark circle of life and were living hand to mouth so I thought to give them a new start. I produced new version of Ainak Wala Jin with the name Return of Nastoor…I made this serial with new technology using 3D animations. The costs of 3D animation flow like running rivers. I had a partner as well to produce this program because I’m a middle class man and I didn’t have enough savings to produce this program completely on my own,” the note states. “One day a gentleman came to me with an approval letter for my program on behalf of state channel PTV…I was very happy so I stared to shooting with an open heart. [But] as the day of signing the contract came, I went to the PTV headquarters in Islamabad to sign and a gentleman who was the head of admin department told me that the letter was fake.”
Qaiser then shared what followed and how his life turned upside down because all other leading channels refused to air his show and he had to pay off his partner by selling all his property. He requested that his fans must not take this as a sign of him begging for help but instead should spread the message around so that one of the channels agree to air his show and his dignity be restored.
It is unfortunate how entertainment’s legends from the past have been ignored time and again and have had to request fans to let their voices be heard. We have seen it happen, in some way or the other, with singer Alamgir, comedian Majid Jehangir and now Shahzad Qaiser. As Qaiser mentions in his note, if there is space for foreign children’s programmes, then there should be room for local ones too.
