02/01/2026
Bushra Ansari is a lot of things, an actor, a playwright, a comedian and a mother. When speaking to students and faculty at Karachi's Sindh Madressatul Islam University, she talked about the challenges she faced wearing so many hats and how the many fields she's a part of have developed over the years.
Having started her comedy career as a puppeteer with Farooq Qaiser in Islamabad before coming to Karachi to work with Moin Akhtar and Anwar Maqsood — all three legends in their own right — she said humour has seen a drastic change over the years.
“People have started laughing at vulgarity. Content creators and influencers, too, these days think that insolent behaviour is amusing, but it is not. We used to make people laugh with simple and clean humour. We still do. If our content creators are successful today with this kind of content, then it is our failure,” she pointed out.
On writing and the state of the drama industry, Ansari said producers see dramas as investments and their primary objective was to make a profit. She regretted how this meant they were less willing to experiment with new ideas, leading to repetitive tropes and stories. "Being a playwright also, I try to pen different stories. One such story of mine has been lying in my desk drawer for 18 years because no production house wants to experiment. They want to play safe,” she said.
She did admit that this better than what was going on in the India, "where they may show women laden with makeup and jewellery working in kitchens".
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