LAHORE:Usman Raaj, the young actor with glittering eyes and big dreams, has made his country proud in foreign lands, including India, USA and Denmark, by playing lead actor in the Ajoka Theater’s world famous play “Bullah.”
Usman Raaj, who was awarded a gold medal in 2017 for best theatre actor, is now appearing on the silver screen soon in the lead role in his first movie” Chu lay Aasman.” Usman Raaj is a son of a teacher and a trained theatre actor. In fact, one of the finest young actors Ajoka Theater produced is now all set to enthrall the cinema audience with his powerful acting talents in the upcoming movie “Chu al Aasman,.” It’s going to be his first movie as a hero.
He has been performing leading roles in the Ajoka since 2012 when he had joined TV and Ajoka Theatre. Usman won the hearts of the theatregoers wherever he went, whether it was in the country or abroad. He has performed twice in the USA, once in Denmark and many times in the neighbouring India.
Though a young man by years and at heart, still, Usman Raj has an enriched perceptive of a Sufi with a different kind of understanding about life, the dynamics of a spiritual life of an artist and, above all, has a non-materialistic attitude towards life. He doesn’t boast of his achievements, doesn’t express any worrying concerns about his future, which is certainly bright and going upwards.
A simple young man with a very professional approach towards acting, Usman tries his best for improvement in every role he plays on the stage and also in real life. Narrating a unforgettable incident when he had to perform the lead role in the famous play of Ajoka Theatre and it was tough for him to perform a certain act, he said, “I was supposed to dance in ecstasy like the whirling dervishes as it was the demand of that play. I
didn’t know how to dance and was utterly confused. I was scared to death about that particular part of the play where I was supposed to performing that exhausting dance during ‘Bullah.. When I started off to perform I saw a sudden light over my head on the stage and I saw a very bright shadow of a figure, which I gathered was ‘Hazrat Baba Blulleh Shah’ in person, who actually guided me through that most difficult time of my life and I kept dancing and dancing amid many rounds of applauds from the audience.” Belonging to Lahore, Usman shared with this scribe, “Mine is a very humble but educated background since my father is a teacher and my spiritual mentor. I have done a four-year degree programme from a prestigious university in Pakistan.
I started reciting Naats when I was just about two years old. I have only one dream and that is to make my country and its people proud of me and to serve the people of my homeland in whichever way I can.”
