Aliza Abbasi Pakistan international screen awards (PISA 2020) which were set to take place in Dubai for the first time, received severe criticism for mismanagement.
Nabeel Zafar Pakistani actor who gained fame from his drama “BULBULY” blamed PISA management that they first used his name for promotions of awards and then they were unable to make arrangements for his travel.
Artists are the pride of Pakistan and they indeed deserve respect at every level. Due to the rough behavior of management, many Pakistani artists failed to receive their awards. Nabeel took this to his social media accounts and bashed the management of PISA 2020 for the poor management, shared the mishaps and miscommitments by PISA management and informed that he will not be attending the show.
The actor also shared the picture of the invitation in which he was nominated for the best actor in a comedy role for his performance in drama serial “BULBULY”.
He further added, “This is utterly disrespectful. On one hand, they are using my name to promote the event and on the other, they are not making timely arrangements for a ticket. While all this is happening they flew certain female celebrities on private jets, most of whom are hardly known. This didn’t just happen with me. It happened with several other actors, some of whom are veterans in the industry”.
He stated,” In my 30-year career, I have rarely been seen on award shows because I don’t feel any of them are credible. I decided to give PISA a chance considering that it was being touted as the first-ever international award showcase and I thought they would hold more credibility than others”.
In response to Nabeel Zafar’s post, other industry artists like Bushra Ansari, Hina Dilpazeer and Nadia Afghan also reacted and expressed their stories that how they were also conducted badly. Bushra Ansari as an industry legend and doubted the trustworthiness of the award shows that lack trust in seniors of the industry which they profess to hold up. She cautioned industry artists to be aware of the tactics of these award shows.
Bushra Ansari said, “I tell the artists to avoid these professional fraud businessmen who make money with our names and sell tickets. But I don’t know why these artists run for just a trip for free as if they never traveled abroad or stayed in a hotel. They are exploiting artists and making money. They don’t pay us, why should we give them business?”.
Nadia Afgan who had been nominated for her exceptionally good performance in drama serial “SUNO CHANDA”, encountered a similar complication. “I feel like if you’re not an Insta star you’re not an Insta star. Aap jitni bhi mehnat karley aap jitney bhi achay actor hoon (No matter how hard you work, how good of an actor you are) its no use if you’re treated like this,” Nadia told The Express Tribune.
Nadia says that she was informed by Body Beat PR, that she has been nominated, while she was shooting for a TV serial in Bahawalpur. “I had to shift my shooting dates when I was told that I would be flying on 6th February. My husband even booked a ticket for himself to accompany me for the award show”, she exclaimed.
PR company gave confidence to Nadia, but she was ultimately ignored by the organizers.
“We had to go in the night around 2:30 AM to cancel my husband’s ticket. I was so upset and felt so insulted. How can you people do this? First, you nominate me, ask for my documents then keep me hanging on. I even had a dress made by Yosuf Bashir Qureshi. It was such a waste of my time. I feel so angry with these people. I am disgusted by their behaviour. I didn’t ask them to nominate me. I didn’t ask them to invite me to Dubai.” she said.
Adnan Shah Tipu who was also nominated for his performance in “Suno Chanda” noted that around 40 people including himself faced the same issue. Nabeel, Rehan and Hina Dilpazeer. The same thing happened with all of them. “They were all nominated but didn’t receive any tickets, however, their name was used in promotion,” Tipu said.
“As far as I remember, I have never faced such an issue before. You can call whomever you want that’s up to you. Jo log nominees hein unko aap tickets nahi bhej rahay aur jinka iss kaam sey lena dena nahi hai unko aap bula rahay hein (All those that are nominated, you aren’t sending them a ticket and those that have nothing to do with it, you are accommodating them)” he said.
The famous actor Osman Khalid Butt also came forward and shared in a Twitter post that he along with Ahmed Ali Akber and Saqib Malik were also rebuffed for the PISA’s at the last moment.
Body Beat PR (BBPR) CEO Hasan Rizvi apologized for the whole situation and disrespect the nominees had to face.
“There was a complete miscommitment on tickets to our respected guests and celebrities. We did not receive the tickets from the management for multiple reasons, including flights being completely full. However, as BBPR was responsible for contacting the guests please treat this as a formal apology for the mismanagement of this. Our intention was never to disrespect any of our guests. We hold each and every one of our guests with the highest regard” Rizvi told The Express Tribune.
He concluded by adding ”We hope with time PISA will get bigger and bigger only to shine our country’s name”.
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