AFSHAN adopted for TV by Bajya, was produced & directed by M. Zaheer Khan (Adnan Siddiqui's father-in-Law -- Humaira Zaheer's husband) for PTV-K sometime in 1980-81 (per memory). The main cast included;
Shafi Muhammad, Ayesha Khan, Sr - Ishrat Hashmi, Qazi Wajid, (Qurban Jilani), Begum Khurshid Mirza, Hadi Bhai, Mrs. Hadi, Ibrahim Nafees, Shakil, Tahira Wasti, Agha Waheed, Aslam Lattar, Beenish..her daughter (I forget her name..she played the lead girl AFSHAN's role), Vaqar (played the lead opp AFSHAN) and yours truly..as Shakil's friend from Africa.
**The serial's recording was like that of TEN COMMANDMENTS or CLEOPATRA! It had a huge cast.....and it was in this serial that Shafi Muhammad (Allah Bakhshay) suddenly and without informing the PTV-K, left for Sharjah to do the shoot of Ghazanfar Ali's (now heading INDUS VISION) movie "Doosra Kinara" with Javed Shaikh and Deepti Naval from India. **
In turmoil as the serial was on air and episodes had to be recorded, the PTV Management in which I was the member of committee.. met and decided to cast QURBAN JILANI (Allah Bakhshay) as the replacement of Shafi Muhammad.. and the serial went on...while Shafi was banned from all stations of PTV for 2 years...it was then that Shafi migrated to Lahore and appeared in a few movies.
AFSHAN's superb performers, undoubtedly, were; Ayesha Khan (Khalida Riyasat's elder sis), Qazi Wajid as the mean husband of Ishrat Hashmi..clad in white sherwani with red hankie...and Tahira Wasti did the graceful role of Najmus Sehr.. in love with Shakil (who played Ayesha's husband)...and I distintly remember our shoot involving me and Shakil at a ship called "OCTAVIA" docked at Karachi's port Keamari then.
The royal house scenes of Tahira Wasti were recorded at the palace of HH Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed of Abudhabi on Khayyaban e Hafiz..next to Saudi Consulate.
**The leading giorl's mother Beenish developed cancer during the shoot. She played the role of Mohsin's wife. She acted in typical Hyderabad Deccani style and also spoke in Deccani dialect. **
Mohsin's role was played by Shafi (Qurban Jilani) who was brother to Ayesha Khan in that serial...and the most powerful scene of the entire serial was when MOHSIN (Shafi) EMBRACES HIS SISTER (Ayesha) PROMISING HER JUSTICE ON SOME MISUNDERSTANDING ON SHAKIL (Ayesha's husband away to Africa)....if you again see that scene.. you'll understand its impact on performance which I termed as CLASSIC in my article I wrote years back on AFSHAN.
Beenish died soon after the serial. Her daughter..who played AFSHAN... is married and happily settled.
VAQAR is my buddy past decades when he worked at UBL (70's)...and last I met him was at Malaysia during Humayun's shoot of SUNN LE NA(2004) ... where Vaqar, who played the lead opposite AFSHAN, was the Country Head for AMERICAN LIFE GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY. He got transferred to Japan last year. His daughters are in regular touch with me and my family on chat and emails.
AFSHAN received high accolades and kudos for its beauty of the sets and a certain flair of the the oriental domestic touch of family values and intricacies exceled.
BTW..all the above I have written...comes from my MEMORY....hence the response in such short while...!!:)
Khush Rahein.....
-Raju Uncle
woh to lag hi raha hai ke aapne memory se likha hai edited. the leading girl Afshan was the daughter of mohsin and najmusehr NOT beenish. afshan was her step daughter.
secondly, the soul of the serial was Shafi Muhammad Shah. the moment he was replaced by the other guy ,the serial became dull and boring. it just kept on dragging.
though shafi gave one of the most memorable performance of his career. he was outstanding in the scene where he calls up his wife najmusehr and asks her to see him immediately and the following scene where he finds her with ali in the latter's house.