KARACHI: Actors are often called out for lacking knowledge around sensitive subjects they tackle in their onscreen projects. This time it is Sonya Hussyn, who announced that she will be playing a schizophrenic in her next play, Saraab. Earlier this month, she posted a picture hinting at a connection between autism and schizophrenia. It stirred debate over Twitter. In response, she said that autism is one of the symptoms of schizophrenia and this made it worse.
Recently, Shamoon Abbasi took to social media and asserted that actors need to know about what they are portraying on screen.
“An actor’s job is to know their roles, know the background,” Shamoon Abbasi posted. “Read, gain knowledge about a certain illness if you are portraying it onscreen… But we are casting actors that have no idea what schizophrenia and autism is. And giving them such roles based on face value or follower count.”
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“At least spare this,” he added. “Don’t compile knowledge on schizophrenia after watching three Indian films. Have your own knowledge before doing anything like that. Actors are the representatives of our society.”
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