Catching up with Farhan Saeed

Farhan Saeed has recently made a return to the small screen with a Ramazan specific drama serial called Suno Chanda. Featuring as the Australia-returned Arsal, the drama casts him opposite Iqra Aziz, who is also featured in the music video he recently directed called ‘O Jaana’. The singer turned director and actor has had quite an interesting career trajectory. Instep sat down with the artist to discuss his latest projects and what has become the #UrwaFarhan brand.

Saeed had been a little inactive in terms of projects but recently a lot has been happening for the former Jal vocalist. “After Udaari I’ve been choosy about the roles I’ve been doing but took the role of Arsal for a number of reasons. Firstly, when I directed ‘O Jaana’ with Iqra Aziz I knew she was a gifted artist and starring opposite her will be a good experience. Plus, when I read the entire story, I thought people would like it. People are bored of family politics and want something light hearted and that’s who I am as a person as well so it came pretty naturally.”

He feels that further dabbling in directing will make him a better actor. “I wanted to see the world from behind the camera because part of acting is knowing what goes on the monitor. In the coming future, I would like to direct a film too but this was more about polishing myself as an actor. It took me a while to come to this side of the spectrum but I’m really happy with how it’s being received,” he shares.

Contrary to what people might believe, he hopes to take singing and acting side by side. He recently shot a music video in New York with Rishi Rich who programmed it. Chris O’Ryan, producer of Justin Bieber’s new song produced it, with Adnan Qazi directing and Saeed composing the track. He’ll be putting out the video soon through Universal Music and feels that’s the way one should share music these days. “For anyone who wants to start as a musician in Pakistan I don’t think releasing an album is the way to go. People just download music and watch music videos so why would you give away ten songs for free.”

Another very dominant aspect of his life is his celebrity wife Urwa Hocane, who recently shared a photograph of the couple alongside an image of Price Harry and Meghan Markle saying, “It reminded us of our own love story of #UrwaFarhan which was crafted a year ago and was trending like wildfire on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!” This status received a lot of flak and Mawra (Hocane) characteristically tweeted in her sister’s defense but Farhan remained quiet on the matter so we wondered what he thought of it.

“I feel that my wedding was even better than the royal wedding because it was mine. Urwa didn’t mean a comparison but the internet is a place you can’t take too seriously. We take it all in our stride and just move on.” The truth is that the #UrwaFarhan brand does get a lot of traction and the two have made a number of appearances together in music videos and serials including Udaari. He shares that now they want to do something bigger. “When we come together there are a lot of expectations and responsibilities but now we’re working on a film script so by the end of this year, people can hope to see us on the big screen together.”