Riz Ahmed hopes to collaborate with artists in Pakistan

Riz Ahmed lived up to his billing as one of the headline draws at the sixth-edition of the Lahore Literary Festival.

In a packed-to-capacity hall at the Alhamra Art Theatre, the Emmy-winning actor, who grew up in London, spoke about returning to Pakistan after 13 years. “It’s been emotional for me,” he said amid raucous cheers, “It is like visiting an ex.” 

When Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid pushed him to continue, he added, the ex “is looking good, has changed a lot. Maybe gotten some work done. Still plays a little bit hard to get. And can be a little bit schizophrenic.”

Ahmed described the last time he was in Pakistan, in 2005, while shooting for the British docudrama, The Road to Guantánamo. He was stopped at a cantonment area in Peshawar. “They [the officers] agreed to let me go if I rapped for them. I thought, wow, this country really takes its poetry seriously.”

Talking about 2016 television drama, The Night Of, for which he was awarded an Emmy for an Actor in a Limited Series, he admitted that preparing for the role was the most stressful period of his life. To play Nasir Khan, a Pakistani/Iranian-American college student accused of murdering a young woman, required him to interview prisoners of all background about surviving behind bars.

Ahmed became the first man of Asian descent to win an acting award at the Emmys.

Before the hour-long session concluded, Ahmed expressed hope that Pakistanis and the Pakistani diaspora can reach out to each other. “I would love to know about and collaborate with artists here. I think we just need to know that it is okay and that we are welcome here.”