Pakistanis love a good ghost story over tea and Saba Qamar shared one from the set of her latest drama, Muamma on Friday. Speaking to Tabish Hashmi on his show Ramzan Mein Hasna Mana Hai, the star revealed her makeup artist was smacked on the noggin by an unseen assailant.
Responding to Hashmi’s question about the incident, she said the hapless victim had stepped off set to perform wuzu before prayers when ‘pataakh,’ he was slapped from the back. When asked if the makeup artist saw someone, Qamar said he hadn’t, “he saw something, just not this,” she said gesturing towards her face. “There was something, but there wasn’t anything.”
The actor said she believed in jinns and Hashmi said he’d heard his fair share of stories too. When the host asked why these paranormal beings insist on slapping people, Qamar contended that people might be intruding on some place of theirs or bothering them.
Hashmi quipped he would just as scared if a jinn kissed him instead of slapping him.
The actor said everyone on set was terrified after the incident and there was talk of shooting at a different location, but the shoot was already more than halfway through. “The amount of effort I’d put in, I told them, ‘I don’t care if it’s Majulika — [a fictional spirit antagonist from the film Bhool Bhulaiyaa] — or Tanjulika, I will make sure we complete this shoot.”
She insisted, “There’s no bigger devil than humans.” Qamar said she wasn’t really scared of ghosts, saying she’d seen a lot in life. She said if she saw a ghost, she’d say, “Brother ghost, let’s sit down and discuss, we will solve this problem”.
Hashmi joked ghosts would tell stories of Qamar over tea to scare each other and she agreed. “After the cases that happened recently, even ghosts must be like, ‘You shouldn’t mess with this one.’”
The host joked that ghosts’ mothers must scold their kids saying, “There’s no such thing as Saba, it’s all a superstition,” earning a hearty laugh from the actor and the audience.
