ISLAMABAD 19 Mar (Online): Shakeel Siddiqui, a popular stand-up comedian, recently made an appearance on the Hafiz Ahmed Podcast. During the webisode, the veteran, who is known for his wit and sharp humour stated that he does not believe Pakistan can presently make a show like The Kapil Sharma Show.
Although Siddiqui is a renowned Pakistani comedian, he rose to prominence in Bollywood after appearing as a contestant in Comedy Circus. Working alongside famous personalities like Urvashi Dholakia, Salman Khan and Johnny Lever, the artist has attained a prestigious image amongst comedians.
Therefore, taking the chance, the host questioned Siddiqui about his take on stand-up comedy shows in Pakistan. “The Kapil Sharma Show is quite a popular show in India, why do we not have such shows here?” he asked.
To this, the Comedy King star replied, “To make a show like Kapil Sharma, you would have to find a Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan or Katrina Kaif here. Our artists come for interviews and strictly say, ‘No, we won’t perform.’ That’s the difference; Indian actors always perform on the shows they are invited to and are even given scripts to follow and they do so.”
He further added, “We would also require a budget and lots of financial investment, even though I always say that when it comes to humour, Pakistan is always ahead of India. Even our audiences are hilarious and are capable of making jokes about anything. The rise of inflation hasn’t done much for us, except evoke a humourous temperament in the public. In India, comedy is creatively planned out instead, they create scripts. If we take Kapil Sharma show for an example, they have 12-14 writers and are designated to work on specific elements of the show. In comparison, Pakistanis just work like labours, trust me, something like that can’t be done here.”
Before concluding, Siddiqui held that Pakistanis already have too much on their plate. “Pakistan is already suffering from many issues, it’s enough for the people to just deal with them for now,” he noted.
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