My guest today in SYH with Samina Peerzada is
Imran Abbas
All of you know
and wanted him to come to my show
and we talk with him about a lot of things
I wanted it too
that he comes
and we will ask him whether he is singing now a days
or whether he is writing or doing some other art
and is he following architecture or not
so today he is here
We will talk with him about a lot of things
and I am very happy that
he is here today
I am so happy you are here, finally
What have you been up to? Where have you been?
I have no idea where I had been
I just kept thinking
when will I get a chance, and when will I ask to come to your show
I have been waiting for a long time
Small things would intervene
Like, when you would call me, I would be abroad
and then your team would call me
and eventually I would miss the season
Now this time I was fortunately in Islamabad when you called
I am so happy you are here
What are you doing now a days?
Samina, I am doing a lot
Firstly, I call you Samina
Obviously you can call me that
I have always called you Samina because I consider you
more than a friend
You might remember that are association has come a long way
I think we did a beautiful serial together
We did 2 serials together
One we did in Scotland
and the other one
was "Koi Lamha Gulaab ho"
and I was your son in it
and it was at the start of my career
and we also did one classic serial, but we didn't share the screen in it
but that was one of my most favorite serials
"Meri Zaat Zara Be Nishaah"
Yes
I was in it too but we didn't come in a single frame
It was the second generation
Right?
Yes
So I am doing a lot Samina
I am doing films, television
I am now starting my own production
and I am thinking to switch from
acting to some other arena
What other arena ?
It can be many, direction, production, singning
and writing
I have been writing since I was very young
I have been hiding and writing
I wrote a lot
When did you start writing?
At a very young age
I remember as I lived in hostel a lot
and I would be away from home
Now I do find some of those writings
so I get shocked that I used to write so good
I would write letters to my mother that I didn't send
and just a few days ago
my mother showed me all those letter she would send me
I thought that those letter would have vanished
but she kept all of the safe
Seriously?
That, "Mummy, I am feeling really cold"
I used to feel cold a lot
and all the things that I ate at Mess
I don't remember all those strange things in those letters
They were and weren't making sense at the same time
The way of your writing can describe your entire personality
How many siblings are you?
We were
6
2 years ago my sister died
Oh I am so sorry
but she is always around me
She surround me every moment
So I think that her presence is with me
but physically, now we are 5
and thanks to God, parents are alive
What happened?
Cancer
She was the eldest?
We had a big age gap
because I am the youngest
and the elder brother is 17 years older than me
and my brother who comes immediately before me
We also have a big age gap of 8 to 10 years
So my sister was pretty elder
but she was too young to die
and you were very close to her
I was very close
All the relationships between us siblings is very strong
they all have raised me like parents
I used to sleep with my sister
My sisters would fight that who would I sleep with
I was pampered a lot because I came into the family after a long gap
and I was very close to my sister
and my eldest sister
she lives in America
I have learned a lot from her
Paintings
Poetry
the sense of music
the use of words
The importance of words
I am very thankful to her
and where were you born?
Islamabad
What did your father do?
My father
he was a civil servant
He is retired now
But he was a civil engineer in Syria
and our entire childhood
most of our childhood, we spent in a government house
it was a small house
although my father was on a good post
but he is among those people who would fight for their rights
sometimes he would feel that maybe
you would have to give something
so he was very clear that he would never earn black money or bribe
so we saw both the good and bad times
I was the youngest so I
saw that time if my parents, where we faced financial problems
so you have a lot of thoughts at that time
and that is why
when I achieve something now, I understand its importance
and I think that
all that time had polished me
and it taught me how to struggle
I was very young when
I would go and do a show on radio, while returning from school
like I got an opportunity, to host a kids show
so I would think of the earning as my pocket money
The radio of Pakistan
you get trained by it
and you get to meet a lot of educated and decent people
The atmosphere was different back then
and it is not even that old thing
I got in contact with a lot of educated people
and every time I
am I talking to much?
No
I always wanted to sit in people who were older than me
The environment in our home was
because you learn from your elders
I don't actually remember if I ever played with the people of my age
From our childhood, we met from Parveen Shaqir
and Ahmed Faraaz, he would come to our house
my father and my sister were poets
So I used to go into poetry competitions with my father
and I would never got bored
nor would I yawn
all those senior poets and serious poetry
difficult words of Urdu
and what was your age?
I was vey young
I was probably in class 1 or 2
and I got trained from that age
thats why I never
looked up to people who had a lot of money
I used to watch Ashfaaq Ahmed's show
"Zawiya" and even today
I can't watch new dramas
I watch the old ones like, "Aik Mohabbat Saw Afsanay"
and all the others
that is why I am a big fan of yours
So all the old souls?
So old that
I usually am telling about old songs to my father
that these are the songs of K.L Saigol, and Pankaj Malik
and he would tell me that even he had not heard them
so the songs by Ameer Bai Karnatki
and Geeta Dutt
I have heard about all these people
So you never played?
Cricket?
or shenanigans
I used to run a lot
and I used to swim a lot
Cycling
the environment in Islamabad make you fond of cycling
and climbing on mountains
taking a bag and adding water bottles in it
I was very fond of those things
as such I never participated with a team
not even in sports
I used to paint pretty well
I was very good in sketching
I was fond of music and I learned it from my childhood
I used to go to the Pakistan Arts Council
and I would learn classical music there
So my training was a bit off in it
and the best thing about being the youngest child is that my parents didn't stop me
My mother supported me a lot
but how did you go in boarding school?
because what I can see is that it is a very close knit family
It was a quite a task from me
it was such a difficult task for me
to leave home and leave my parents
I used to be very homesick
but I aways
liked to challenge myself
I used to like to do the thing that other people thought that I couldn't do
so maybe I wanted to prove myself or the people
So you asked you parents to send you in boarding school?
Yes
No
and my mother was in Karachi at that time
and what was your age?
I was 16
I was very young and I was the youngest in the whole cadet college
and
but I used to be very homesick
and I would write the letter
and the first letter I wrote
the first line in it was
I am very cold, Mummy
and I read a Parveen Shaqir's poem
and it had the same words in the start
I am very cold, Mama
She wrote it for mothers
So somehow I was very fond of Parveen Shaqir
because she used to come to my house, and I saw her up close
and I still feel the pain of her death
There are some people, you don't understand your relation with them
I connect with her poems a lot
and when I read that line, I thought that she thinks like me too
but there are such people in your life
So what was the life changing moment?
Yes, when I left home for the first time
180 degrees
I was very scared and terrified
I would take part in the painting and singing competition
all of this happened in the school
I would go out and do all this infront of poeple
I wasn't camera and stage shy
but I never left my home
and when this happened to me for the first time
so I was shook
then I understood that life means to get out
and I had to leave my house
and I was very young when I start living on my own
and when I returned from the cadet college
I left it in the middle, to years were still remaining
Then I started studying in NCA
So how did you decide about NCA?
I got to know after a while
because you were so of an engineer
Its a different life there
You can call this my ignorance
that I didn't know that there is an institution like NCA in Pakistan
and when I went to my cadet college
There I met some people who asked me that what was I doing there
I used to sketch
and I can even make a sketch of yours right now
I think even did make one
I don't remember
No, now I want it
So I was very good in sketching
and in the very start
I used to earn money from it too
I used to make sketches and visit embassies where I would sell them
So I used to earn some money from there too
So I made one and a friend of mine told me that his sister was studying at NCA
and thats where you are taught all this
I started thinking that I was wrong coming here than
Then I decided that I will not stay here
Now I will do whatever I want
because I wasn't made for it
I cannot live a routine life
I realized it very quickly
that you should follow your heart
So who was steering your life initially, your father or your mother?
Or your elder siblings
No no one was doing it
But
So they handed you this much freedom?
When I went to the cadet college, thats when
my mother wasn't happy about it
but she didn't stop me from going
She thought that I would get trained
and its a good things that you get a training like this
and you need to face some ragging in your life
There were many people in my family who went into the army
So they said that this is a very good life
When you go and train from the cadet college
So
but I said no
I can't do it
I had seen that tough time and had gone through my junior year
but I couldn't associate with that place
not at all
I didn't like the thinking there
nor the life they lived
because you were creative
You used to sing and write poetry
and reads poetry too
even today when I look back
I don't have any regrets in life
I want to know that as a little baby
when you were small
what kind of dreams did you see?
What were you thinking about becoming?
I always saw myself flying
What?
I have always seen myself flying
on water or?
its like I am walking and
my steps are lifting me into the air
and this had always been my fantasy
Not fantasy but a dream
I have always seen my self flying in dreams \
and even then I start thinking that I am not dreaming, I can fly in real life
I don't have wings but I still can
Do you understand the meaning of this?
that this fantasy of flying
Did you know that you will become a star?
No
Samina I
Nor did I wanted to become a star
Really?
Seriously
and nor did I connect myself with this
I still think that I am an alien
Now that time has come when
initially it wasn't necessary
but now I have started dissociating myself from people
I don't go on awards or events
You won't find me on page 3, and partying
I think the moments in our life are so less, selective and countable
that at any second
With any kind of a person
or wasting time at any kind of a place
that is not giving you any benefit
I don't mean physical benefits
but if its not giving you spiritual happiness
Look, now if you go on events and awards, its not going to make a difference
you have only shown yourself and met with them
but if you are not connecting with these people
I am not saying that I have a different mental level
I think that I am nothing compared to them
but I can't connect myself with them
I think that all the life that I am left with
So where do you belong?
You studied architecture at NCA
and you didn't do it either
I did practice architecture
I did a lot of projects too
So why architecture and not painting?
It is so intriguing to know
Architecture itself is frozen music \
it has the same rhythm
all the elements that music has
you see them in a frozen form
Poetry is architecture, beauty is architecture
Art and music is architecture
So when did you get to know about all this
When I started studying architecture I came to know about it more
but yes I had an idea that
because what I can understand of you
that there are lots of forces pushing you and pulling you
Tug of war has been from the start
I want to know that where you stand today
is it like this
are things still pushing and pulling you?
Yes, I have always been in a Tug of war
Why is it like that?
Have you thought about it?
I think it happens that every
creative man faces all these things
You mind and heart always have a fight
What do you want to do?
I want to flow
I want to flow like waves
I don't want to become an obstacle infront of these things in me
I just want to become a net and let them flow through me
I am not that kind of a fish that fights the direction of the flow to prove itself
I want to feel everything and let it go through me
I just want to move on
I like that
no where in life it is written that
or in a book that if you studied architecture, you will die an architect
this is called exploring
You explore yourself when you meet someone, when you read something, or experience something
or by losing or gaining something
and like this your life ends
What are you trying to find?
What I am trying to find?
What things are you looking for?
because to me it feels as if
Imran is trying to find something
Its a strange thing
I want to spend this time really quickly
and I want to
go to the place called eternity
and I think of this place as a tunnel that I have to pass quickly
Like when you live in a rented place
Why?
Like when you are traveling on a train and you don't place your hand outside the window to even touch a plant, because you fear that it might bruise you
So I just want that
I experience all of it and quickly pass through it
For a while now, I have started considering this world and its people a disease
except a few people
and recently after my sister died
give me 2 minutes
I think that people leave suddenly
so I don't plan anything
Planning itself is a stupid thing
Hazrat Ali has said that when a person gets an idea how fast death is traveling towards you
then you will start laughing on all these ambitions and plannings
so I don't plan anything now
that what will happen after 10 years
recently so many beautiful people left suddenly
One day, I will leave too
so why should I plan
From a small level to a level that is in my ability
I just want to do something for someone
Charity
Just looking at someone and smiling
or just feeding some birds outside my house
or feeding sugar to the ants if I am eating something
I think you should give your services to people
for humans, animals, anyone
and this has become very strong in me after a long while
I think that I have wasted loads of my time
and now the life I am left with
You should just do thing quickly in it
and meaningless relations
and timeless activities, you shouldn't waste your time in them
its too limited
Time is less
for everyone
so we should try to benefit ourselves from it
So what about falling in love?
Did you fell in love?
Yes indeed
Without love
you can't feel pain, or you don't get polished
and if you never felt pain, you can never be a true artist
You cannot become a good human being
so yes, it happened
How many times?
Once
at what age?
in college days
Seriously?
There is a poem by Faraaz
after that you try to find love
when you have raw cement
and you write something on it
so that thing you write, it doesn't fade
and when the cement makes a concrete wall
Such architectural talk
Even if you try to write something on it, you can't
so when their something written on your raw mind
Did you find her?\
No
What does finding her mean?
You still love her?
I still love her
and she?
Yes, ending up together is meaningless in love
Love is just a complete process
So you didn't love again?
No, I didn't find it necessary
not at all
I feel myself very complete now
with lots of
things to cherish
with lots of memories to feel great about
and I have
I am very happy, I am not a sad person
I have contentment
what makes you really happy?
Sitting with my mother
and with close ones
I am also not gadget dork
I don't know how to use Snap Chat
everyone is using it
I don't want to get into these things
There are somethings like instagram
but again I
Even right now
You will get shocked that
I don't watch telelvision
I don't watch films
I don't have interest in t.v or film s
I just work, and I don't even watch my own dramas
and even when all the big directors are close friends with me
including
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Karan Johar
all the people I worked with, like Raj Kumar Santoshi
they all have brilliant master pieces
but I can't watch
my heart doesn't feel like watching them
Loads of times, Sanjay sir has called me told me to watch some of his new movies
so I tell him that now I will watch it as you forced
I prefer channels like Natural Geographic or Animal Planet
I can't watch lies
Do you go out?
Do you go out of your house?
A lot
No one knows
Everyone thinks that
you have 2 million fans on this and that
I still wander on the roads alone
and even now
I came from Karachi to Islamabad by road
I sat on the Dhabas
I wear the dust allergy mask\
and I go shop things of my own
I love it, some people recognize my eyes
so I run and get into the car
but I love it
I am telling you that it was never my dream
When I went to do my first film in bollywood
with Bipasha
at that time
I thought, and here it has just recently started
that you go out and there is paparazzi
this culture has come pretty late here
it was in bollywood from the start
so I came out of the hotel and so many people were infront of me
I started questioning what I was doing here
I don't want to become what I am becoming
why am I buying this sadness for myself
all these people falling on me
and taking my picture like mad people
I am not at all like this
I was just acting
Definately I like the love I get
but I came to earn only
I didn't want my privacy to end
and when I get out, people are screaming at me
I am thankful that I got all this
but its not a very
easy deal
You are buying a lot of pain for yourself
you have no idea that
how much agony you are bringing
in this deal 
SO I feel more happy when I am with normal people
even today when I go to my old streets and the society
The one who was selling peas, I would go to him 
He died and his son would be there
So they gasp that I am there
So I tell him that I feel energy standing there
that why are you people keeping me away from yourself
When the bouncers are pushing people away
I tell them to stop doing it to people
There was I time when I would stand to get a picture with Reema
and I would think that she is looking so nice and everything 
and I would tell my friends that I saw Reema
or I saw Barbara Shareef
I liked Neeli a lot
but
then that time came when I worked with Reema 
Reema is a very good friend of mine
So time changes
but I tell people not to push them away
Can you move away from all this noise?
Yes I can
Very happily
Happily walk away?
Oh very happily
What will you do then, architecture?
I can do architecture 
a lot of things
You can sing too
Don't you ever want to be a dad?
I am dying to be a dad
So when are you getting married?
When I come to your show next season, maybe I will have a small baby with me
I pray that God gives me one
You are getting married?
Yes, very soon
You are in love?
Yes
Thats another story
I am not talking about that mad love, I won't lie and I won't lie to her as well
that you cannot love like teens again
but yes, when you have realization about things
you get to know that
a lot of things
are bigger than love
Are you moody?
Not anymore
but yes I used to be very moody
I think that I have become very calm now
You might feel the same after meeting me
that a crazy Imran Abbas
who was in Scotland, and used to wear big sweaters
and he would be wandering about 
That thing has ended now
Who spoke before he thought
and I regretted after speaking
and sometimes I didn't even wanted to speak what I did
but now I have stopped speaking that much because I know
sometimes your words
there is nothing more stronger than them
I think that after some time, you will surely see
and its my wish, I have been doing small works
that for Jail Reforms Comittee
and water for people in Thar, I have been doing all this
but I am
dying to build an old house 
old home, that is for the senior citizens
and I feel very sad
because of people 
those children are unlucky who leave their parents
Parents are not that unlucky because they spent some time and will eventually leave
but you are gathering hell for yourself
by leaving your parents
So I want to do a lot for those old citizens
It will be an old home
and it will have all the basic and the medical facilities 
but sitting next to them and talking with them
Where did this thought come from?
My parents don't know this at all that
I visit their old friends and when they have sick and bed ridden people
I go and sit next to them whenever I have time
I am very fond of sitting with elders
The most valuable thing that you can give people is time
You can get everything back
You cannot get time back 
When you are giving your time to someone, it is the most valuable thing you have
Even when you are earning money, its because of the time you have
I was reading Ashfaq Ahmed
he said that
Whenever you are getting something in return, its because of time 
so if you give your time to someone
and even when you are sitting with you parents, you should divide it
You are using the phone
You are eating food and using apps the same time 
for God's sake, if you can give 5 or 10 minutes
So how did he change?
Imran Abbas
From that good looking 
flamboyant
crazy and young man that I knew
and the serious 
I lost so many friends in the middle 
and fortunately I am left with
very handful of them now and I am very happy
because you don't need fake relations
We think that those who are kissing us from cheek to cheek 
they are basically not friends 
but what was it, when did this thing struck you?
I think you should get struck with this, because you only have one friend in your life 
It has changed Imran so much
I think exposure 
You might remember this Samina that
you were on a set with me
there was a director Bobby who came from India 
He offered us both a film
That was the first time I was offered a movie in India
and today
20 of them
You name it, which director
Sanjay Leela Bhansaali, Raj Kumar Santoshi, Karan Johar
Raj Kumar Hirani, Mahesh films
Abishek Kapoor, all big characters 
Either I worked with them or they offered me a movie
I worked in India a lot and out of Pakistan
When you travel and you meet new people
the experience has not been so great for me
it wasn't that bad either
but I saw the real faces of people there also
in Pakistan and also other parts of the world, people are same everywhere 
So I understood what is the truth
the more you go out and meet poeple 
thats when your layers are taken off
Then you know what are the real faces of people
So it is a very eye opening experience 
to me I think it gave me a new prespective 
but not bitter
No no no
I am not at all a bitter person 
I think that I am 
more positive than before
I am smiling person
I now have a lot of sweetness for thoughts
which wasn't before
Reality is beautiful, life is beautiful
you should not consider it bad
I think that this time should quickly pass
but this is where you are sowing the seeds and it will grow into a big tree
You shouldn't consider it bad, but yes it is very temporary 
so don't love it too much
because you have to leave it
When you put a nail inside a rent house, you do it with care
because its not you own house
so the thought of living here permanantly 
nor should you make relations 
because there is this bitter fact that
that we deny
that all people close to you will leave
and you yourself will leave 
and we forget this thing every time
maybe it sounds cliched
that time is less
and it is not as much as we think
No matter, but life gives you many unseen suprises
and you are not prepared for them
Are you afraid?
from the unknown
Not from the unknown
I am afraid of dependence
emotional dependence 
physical dependence 
financial dependence
I don't want to depend on others 
I don't want to depend on relations
that I won't be able to live without it 
or financially, I am afraid of dependence 
Any regret?
Apparently 
I don't have any regrets now, I did have them when
I left Ashiqui 2 and Ram Leela 
I thought that these movies became so hit and the one that I did wasn't so succussful 
but 
it was very important 
Samina
The prespective with which we see the world
or the universe
it has some deep meanings 
We think of it as success or failure 
or if someone is close and the other is distant 
but God has made you experience all those things and has planned something else for you 
He has to give you something, like strength in you personality 
or has to make you go through another test
Success doesn't mean what we are thinking
this is something else
Apparently, when I left the movie and for a year I was in depression 
that I just ruined my career
It did a business of 100 corore and I rejected it myself 
but later I came to know that no
I was looking things from a small aspect
thats why I don't have a regret now 
and this is success
Success is when you look back and you don't regret anything 
a constant state of happiness is success 
What is life
Life is the biggest surprise 
Life is another name of the biggest surprise ever
at every moment 
in a new way
life prepares you for another jaw drop 
and success
Success, I said, is a constant state of happiness
and when you look back you shouldn't have any regrets in life
You can also re steer or re direct your regrets 
and turn it into a learning lesson 
and failure?
Failure is when you give up
When you lose hope 
thats failure 
or else it doesn't exist 
Failure itself is nothing
Giving up on your self
You are not scared of dying?
NO
Like in this interview, I learned a new thing from you 
No, death is a beautiful thing 
Do you see it as a meeting?
I think I will meet divinity 
You are always afraid of something in life 
You are afraid of making relations that they will end 
You are afraid of getting something 
I never feel proud of my fame and beauty 
Dilip Kumar called my mother and asked her that what did she eat to give birth to such a beautiful person
From Dilip Kumar
Mazafar Ali, I did his film
he said in Times of India that there is no man more beautiful than Imran in Pakistan or India
and his acting is similar to Farrukh Sheikh
I always got these compliments but I not for a second was I proud
Were you afraid that this might end?
This will end eventually 
so why should I be obsessed with it
I have all these old magazines 
and when I read something an actor has said, like the tomorrow is mine
and she is not even talked about now
so that tomorrow has become a yesterday
so
Success
Happiness 
Money
Love
everything
when it will end
so why should we love it
You should love something that stays with you forever 
and you don't have a fear to loose it
So the fear in love
There are loads of fear in life
so with that divinity 
why don't you love something that you don't have to fear about 
So when I got to a grave yard, I feel so calm
First I used to be scared, that don't walk near a graveyard, dead people and etc
Graveyard makes me feel so relaxed
Rumi once said
That go to grave yard, and listen to the silence of people speaking 
all the big and small are silent
and laying in a coffin 
So this is the ultimate thing, leaving the world
Parents stop mourning for the young children
and in a week you are celebrating birthdays
after your elders have left
all of this goes on
so this how the world works
thats why you shouldn't get obsessed with it 
Now I don't feel very happy on someone's success
nor do I fear of losing something
because I know that eventually you will lose everything 
Thank you
Thank you so much
