Ali Junejo is a Pakistani actor and writer. In 2022, he came into limelight after appearing in the Cannes Award-winning Lollywood film Joyland, in which he played the role of Haider.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Not much information is available about Ali Junejo’s education.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 5″
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Ali Junejo with the cast of Pakistani film Joyland; Photo of the 75th Annual Cannes Film Festival
Family
Ali Junejo belongs to a Muslim family from Karachi.
Wife
Ali Junejo is unmarried.
livelihood
Theater
Initially, Ali Junejo started his career as a theater artist. According to Ali, he got his first break in a murder and mystery play, after which he decided to continue his career as a theater artist. In an interview given to a media house, Ali Junejo talked about his career as a theater artist and said,
I have been doing theater for a long time. I auditioned for a play; It was like a murder mystery thing and then I got hooked to it. I spent some time outside the country and then came back in 2012 and then I continued doing theatre. I was writing, directing and performing and I did a lot of work with NAPA.
He has worked in various theatrical productions such as Samuel Beckett’s famous play ‘Waiting for Godot’ (2013), Sunil Shankar’s play Dead End (2019), and Equus (2017). He has also worked with the National Academy of Performing Arts in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. In an interview, he talked about his dramatic play Waiting for Godot and said,
The kind of things I was working on before involved a huge amount of personal effort because I, along with my co-director, did everything. However, this time, I am at the complete surrender of none other than Jiya Saheb himself. The kind of training and experience that Zia Sahab has as a director makes me more confident [in the faithful adaptation of this play], He knows a lot about the background [of the play] And have a very clear picture in mind, but also give us room to bring our own flavor. As long as you know what you’re doing, he’s not strangling you.”
Amid Raiz as Polo (centre), Faris Khaled as Estragon (left) and Ali Junejo as Vladimir (right) in a scene from Samuel Beckett’s classic play, directed by Napa’s Zia Mohieddin.
lollywood movie
Ali Junejo started his film career with the award-winning Pakistani film Joyland alongside Alina Khan and Rasti Farooq, in which he played the role of Haider. In an interview, Ali Junejo talked about how she got the role of Haider in the Lollywood film Joyland and said,
It was quite difficult. I auditioned for it and it was my last audition so maybe I got it because they ran out of people (laughs). I read the script so my curiosity was driving me crazy; When I talked to Sam, I got the feeling that he would be open to discussion and debate about the character’s intentions. The challenge was that nothing is black and white in Haider’s life, so I realized it would require a lot of work and I loved that.
Ali Junejo as Haider and Alina Khan as Beba in a scene from the Lollywood film Joyland (2022)
award
In 2022, Ali Junejo won the Special Mention Award at the 46th So Paolo International Film Festival.
An Instagram story shared by Joyland director Sam Sadiq about Ali Junejo winning the Special Mention Award at the 46th So Paolo International Film Festival
Facts/General Knowledge
- Ali Junejo’s debut Lollywood film Joyland became the first Pakistani film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The Lollywood film also received a standing ovation after its screening at the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival and won the Cannes Queer Palm Award for Best LGBT, “Queer” or Feminist-themed Film.
Lollywood film Joyland (2022) receives standing ovation from audience at 75th Cannes Film Festival
- Initially, Ali Junejo’s critically acclaimed Pakistani film Joyland (2022) was banned by the Government of Pakistan alleging that the film contained “extremely objectionable content”. In an interview, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting talked about the film and said,
Written complaints were received that the film contains highly objectionable content which is not in keeping with the social values and moral standards of our society and is clearly repugnant to the norms of ‘decency and morality’ laid down in Section 9 of the Motion Picture Ordinance. 1979.”
However, on 16 November 2022, after receiving severe backlash over Pakistani authorities’ decision to ban the film Joyland, the authority decided to lift the ban. Salman Sufi, an aide of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, informed in a tweet about the government’s decision to lift the ban on the film Joyland. He tweeted,
The review committee of the Censor Board formed on the instructions of has approved the film #Joyland for release. [Prime Minister Sharif], Freedom of expression is a fundamental right and should be nurtured within the ambit of law.”
- In an interview, Sam Sadiq, a Pakistani director, talked about his film Joyland and how he chose Ali to play the role of Haider in his film. He said,
For the role of Haider, we held a casting call and auditioned around 600 actors. it was crazy! I wasn’t there for all 600 auditions, but my casting director was. And we didn’t like anyone. There were also actors who said that they could not play this role. I knew I needed a courageous actor. I almost gave up and if we had not found the right lead we would not have made the film. Ali walked into my living room and within 10 minutes I decided I was going to castrate him. Even before I read the script, there was something about him that I liked. He made the film successful in many ways.”
- Ali Junejo does not use any social media platform. According to Pakistani director Sam Sadiq, Ali’s only existence is on the stage (theatre). Sam Sadiq talked about this in an interview and said,
I almost gave up and we wouldn’t have made the film if we hadn’t found the right lead. But then someone recommended I check out this theater actor who had no Instagram, no social media presence. He had no existence apart from the stage.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn