The Film Villain Who Had No Home in Lahore

Shahid Naseeb comes from Toba Tek Singh in Pakistan and ended up in Lahore, where the Express Tribune met him. About ten years before the Express Tribune spoke to him in May 2017, he left his village to become an actor, looking for work in Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore.

He co-wrote the action film Whistle and played the villain in it. His television credits included the dramas Dullari, Jab Usse Mujh Se Mohabbat Hui and Iltaja, and he had some good roles in dramas and telefilms.

But work dried up. He told the paper that he had no home in Lahore and slept on the roads. He ate only once a day and earned about 20,000 rupees a month, painting strangers' houses and performing at one-off private functions for quick cash. He said he was saving to record a song and needed 100,000 rupees to pay Lahore musicians.

He blamed the lack of work. He said that producers took advantage of his ambition by asking him to paint their homes in exchange for work, and that the producers of Whistle left his name out of the credits even though he had written the script. People he worked alongside teased him with a nickname meaning painter.

Going back to his village was not an option, he said, because people there would mock his failure. The article gives no information on what happened to him after 2017.