Ali Saleem
Encyclopedia
Ali Saleem best known by his alter-ego Begum Nawazish Ali, is a Pakistan
i television
host, actor, scriptwriter and impressionist
. He broke into the mainstream audiences through his impersonations of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto
, and later and playing the cross-dressing Begum Nawazish Ali on various television channels, including the Aaj TV
network, Dawn News
and Geo TV
network. His alter ego of Begum Nawazish Ali has now become his primary persona as he rarely appears as the male Ali Saleem. Aged 31 years old, he is a bisexual man born to a retired colonel father in Pakistan Army
and his wife, a former government official.
Biologically born a male, Ali has sometimes called himself gay,
bisexual
or at other times even a transsexual.
to a colonel in the Pakistan Army, Ali Saleem had everything he desired.
From a young age, he desired and fantasized about being a woman.
It was in his teens that he got to do a play for Yasmeen Ismail at the Arts Council clad in a burqa
offering the audience with his monologue that people saw his inner lady come out. They would flock him and ask him in disbelief of how a child can impersonate a woman older than his age. Ali now says that because his audience was older than his age then, he felt he matured earlier. Ali took his early life education from Froebel's International School
His breakthrough in the entertainment industry came when he started imitating his childhood heroine, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto
, from the way she talked to the way she dressed. So loved were his performances that on the occasion of Zohaib Hassan
's dholki, Bhutto herself asked Ali to impersonate her. Zohaib's sister Nazia
had warned Ali not imitate the prime minister. But, eventually, when asked he even made the prime minister Benazir Bhutto burst out in laughter and appreciated the performance.
. Here he came to terms with Imran Aslam, a political satire writer who would tell him of a television channel in the pipeline, that would later be called Geo TV
. Ali's Benazir impressions were famous among his friends and Imran told him to take it to the airways with the television channel once it got aired. A show dealing with political humour around the time of election in the country aptly named Hum Sub Umeed Se Hai (idiomatically translated as We Are All Expecting (Pregnant), but meant to translate as We Are All Hopeful) showed people impersonating the election candidates. Ali would do his Benazir act here for the first time on the tube
.
After a while with the act, Ali would came to realise that the act alone would not shape his career and he had to do more with his talent. It was from this very act that Ali gained the nickname BB or bibi meaning lady in Urdu
. Omar Adil, an orthopaedic surgeon by profession, doctor to Madam Noor Jehan
was a close friend of his. With an extensive research into Pakistani cinema under his belt and ties to multiple television channels, the doctor suggested Ali with the idea of having a dragged
-up character as a host for a talk show. Thus, Begum Nawazish was born.
and asks influential guests provocative questions in his show Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali. He would invite two guests at a time to be interviewed. The name Begum Nawazish Ali was suggested by Dr. Adil talking of his neighbour with the same name, wife to a colonel. Ali could relate strongly to this persona as an alter ego. The facts that the Begum they created lived a wealthy life living off the money of her late armyman husband and was a socialite, bore resemblance to the life Ali himself had lived in his earlier days. The rights to the show were sold to Aaj TV
where the show airs every Saturday night.
It's just this use of gestures and acts that Begum has earned a nasty reputation amongst the more fundamentalist ideals of the religious leaders (where some are even amused by his show)
but has still ventured into the hearts and minds of the younger generations. While talking of taboo topics like "sex" in Pakistan where it is strictly off-limits even trying to mention it, Ali has been spared a backlash only because when on-the-air he is personifying a woman. Women, however, say that they are still afraid to do what Ali is doing on the show.
Where television talk shows in Pakistan are reluctant to take on criticism for the military backed Pakistani government, Begum had always been critical of a general seated as a president. Due to these critical claims, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
was opposed to the show's airing. This fair bit of opposition led to the temporary closure of the show. Offers however extended from across the border in India
for a follow-up of the show by the name Begum.
The reformatted show aired 26 episodes with Indian celebrities on the channel 9X
from India.
in India. During the first week, Ali became the captain of the house after the former captain was disqualified. In one of the episodes it was predicted by astrologer Bejan Daruwala that Ali would be among the finalists to win the Bigg Boss 4 title, however he was evicted in the third week.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
host, actor, scriptwriter and impressionist
Impressionist (entertainment)
An impressionist or a mimic is a performer whose act consists of imitating the voice and mannerisms of others. The word usually refers to a professional comedian/entertainer who specializes in such performances and has developed a wide repertoire of impressions, including adding to them, often to...
. He broke into the mainstream audiences through his impersonations of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
, and later and playing the cross-dressing Begum Nawazish Ali on various television channels, including the Aaj TV
AAJ TV
AAJ TV is a 24 hour Pakistani news television channel. Aaj in English means "Today".-Channel and its Programmes:AAJ News was initially started on March 23, 2005 by the Business Recorder Group...
network, Dawn News
Dawn News
Dawn News was Pakistan's 24-hour Urdu news channel. Based in Karachi, the station is a subsidiary of Pakistan Herald Publications Limited , Pakistan's largest English-language media group. The test transmission of the station occurred on May 25, 2007, and the channel went live on July 23, 2007...
and Geo TV
Geo TV
Geo TV or Geo Television is a Pakistani television network, founded by Mr. Mir Shakil ur Rehman in May 2002 and owned by Independent Media Corporation. The channel began test transmission on 14 August 2002, with regular transmission beginning 1 October 2002...
network. His alter ego of Begum Nawazish Ali has now become his primary persona as he rarely appears as the male Ali Saleem. Aged 31 years old, he is a bisexual man born to a retired colonel father in Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
and his wife, a former government official.
Biologically born a male, Ali has sometimes called himself gay,
bisexual
or at other times even a transsexual.
Early life and being Ali Benazir
Born in IslamabadIslamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
to a colonel in the Pakistan Army, Ali Saleem had everything he desired.
From a young age, he desired and fantasized about being a woman.
It was in his teens that he got to do a play for Yasmeen Ismail at the Arts Council clad in a burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
offering the audience with his monologue that people saw his inner lady come out. They would flock him and ask him in disbelief of how a child can impersonate a woman older than his age. Ali now says that because his audience was older than his age then, he felt he matured earlier. Ali took his early life education from Froebel's International School
Froebel's International School
Froebel's International School is a school located in Pakistan with branches in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Lahore. It was founded in 1975 by Mrs. Zamir. It started with ten students and four faculty members but now has grown to three campuses in three cities...
His breakthrough in the entertainment industry came when he started imitating his childhood heroine, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
, from the way she talked to the way she dressed. So loved were his performances that on the occasion of Zohaib Hassan
Zohaib Hassan
Zoheb Hassan is a self retired Pakistani pop icon, who left the music industry after the sad demise of his sister and sub-continental pop legend, Nazia Hassan.-Career:Zoheb Hassan was born on November 18, 1966....
's dholki, Bhutto herself asked Ali to impersonate her. Zohaib's sister Nazia
Nazia Hassan
Nazia Hassan was an iconic Pakistani pop singer. Her song "Aap Jaisa Koi" from the Indian film Qurbani made her a legend and pop icon in Pakistan and all of South Asia in the 1980s, where she is admired and loved even today, years after her death...
had warned Ali not imitate the prime minister. But, eventually, when asked he even made the prime minister Benazir Bhutto burst out in laughter and appreciated the performance.
The birth of Begum Nawazish Ali
His father and mother would soon seek a divorce, during which Ali had to come to the city of KarachiKarachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
. Here he came to terms with Imran Aslam, a political satire writer who would tell him of a television channel in the pipeline, that would later be called Geo TV
Geo TV
Geo TV or Geo Television is a Pakistani television network, founded by Mr. Mir Shakil ur Rehman in May 2002 and owned by Independent Media Corporation. The channel began test transmission on 14 August 2002, with regular transmission beginning 1 October 2002...
. Ali's Benazir impressions were famous among his friends and Imran told him to take it to the airways with the television channel once it got aired. A show dealing with political humour around the time of election in the country aptly named Hum Sub Umeed Se Hai (idiomatically translated as We Are All Expecting (Pregnant), but meant to translate as We Are All Hopeful) showed people impersonating the election candidates. Ali would do his Benazir act here for the first time on the tube
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
.
After a while with the act, Ali would came to realise that the act alone would not shape his career and he had to do more with his talent. It was from this very act that Ali gained the nickname BB or bibi meaning lady in Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
. Omar Adil, an orthopaedic surgeon by profession, doctor to Madam Noor Jehan
Noor Jehan
Noorjehan or Noorjehan was the adopted stage name for Allah Wasai who was a legendary singer and actress in British India and Pakistan. Her career spanned seven decades...
was a close friend of his. With an extensive research into Pakistani cinema under his belt and ties to multiple television channels, the doctor suggested Ali with the idea of having a dragged
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
-up character as a host for a talk show. Thus, Begum Nawazish was born.
Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali
Ali cross-dresses as a woman wearing a sariSari
A sari or sareeThe name of the garment in various regional languages include: , , , , , , , , , , , , , is a strip of unstitched cloth, worn by females, ranging from four to nine metres in length that is draped over the body in various styles. It is popular in India, Bangladesh, Nepal,...
and asks influential guests provocative questions in his show Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali. He would invite two guests at a time to be interviewed. The name Begum Nawazish Ali was suggested by Dr. Adil talking of his neighbour with the same name, wife to a colonel. Ali could relate strongly to this persona as an alter ego. The facts that the Begum they created lived a wealthy life living off the money of her late armyman husband and was a socialite, bore resemblance to the life Ali himself had lived in his earlier days. The rights to the show were sold to Aaj TV
AAJ TV
AAJ TV is a 24 hour Pakistani news television channel. Aaj in English means "Today".-Channel and its Programmes:AAJ News was initially started on March 23, 2005 by the Business Recorder Group...
where the show airs every Saturday night.
Courting controversy
The show has invited the likes of business tycoons, industrialists, actors and actresses, government and religious leaders. Begum would flirt with any one of the male guests "using suggestive banter and sexual innuendo".It's just this use of gestures and acts that Begum has earned a nasty reputation amongst the more fundamentalist ideals of the religious leaders (where some are even amused by his show)
but has still ventured into the hearts and minds of the younger generations. While talking of taboo topics like "sex" in Pakistan where it is strictly off-limits even trying to mention it, Ali has been spared a backlash only because when on-the-air he is personifying a woman. Women, however, say that they are still afraid to do what Ali is doing on the show.
Where television talk shows in Pakistan are reluctant to take on criticism for the military backed Pakistani government, Begum had always been critical of a general seated as a president. Due to these critical claims, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
was opposed to the show's airing. This fair bit of opposition led to the temporary closure of the show. Offers however extended from across the border in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
for a follow-up of the show by the name Begum.
The reformatted show aired 26 episodes with Indian celebrities on the channel 9X
9X
9X is an Indian Hindi general entertainment channel based in Mumbai. It is owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel was launched on November 12, 2007 in India...
from India.
Bigg Boss 4
Ali participated in the reality show Bigg Boss 4Bigg Boss (Season 4)
Bigg Boss 4 in 2010 was the fourth season of Indian reality TV show Bigg Boss, which aired on Colors from October 3, 2010. This season was longer than its predecessor, Bigg Boss 3 and lasted for 14 weeks ending on January 8, 2011...
in India. During the first week, Ali became the captain of the house after the former captain was disqualified. In one of the episodes it was predicted by astrologer Bejan Daruwala that Ali would be among the finalists to win the Bigg Boss 4 title, however he was evicted in the third week.