Nayla Jaffri discusses the financial pressure she’s been facing as a consequence of her extended illness in a video posted on Twitter by her friend and filmmaker Furqan Siddiqui. The actor recalled in the video “when I first joined PTV, I remember that broadcasters would pay us royalties for re-runs of our old shows.” She also noted that her last serial has “run on air some six times over the last six years, maybe four.
Nayla Jaffri is a well-established actress who is well known for her roles in the hit television shows Desi Girls, Aa Mujh Ko Sulana, and Thori Si Khushiyan. In 2017, the details of her diagnosis became public, and she announced that she had ovarian cancer.
She did say that the royalties wouldn’t be much, but that they used to get a lot more back then than they do now. “When you haven’t been working for a while and have no support, these things become very important,” she continued, stressing that more has to be accomplished in this regard. She went on to say that royalties shouldn’t be restricted to just actors but should also extend to athletes and other artists.
My dear friend and a renowned TV actor Naila Jafri has been fighting Cancer since last 6 years. The battle is very expensive. In this video she requests if the channel owners pay royalty to her previous work’s re runs it will be of great help to her. pic.twitter.com/AYc6TOTRB7
— Furqan T. Siddiqui (@furqantsiddiqui) April 4, 2021
Her tweet received a great deal of coverage. In addition, Sindh Culture Minister Sardar Shah contacted Jaffri on behalf of the government, offering to cover her medical costs and requesting her phone number so that he could contact her.
Mikaal Zulfiqar had previously raised his voice in protest of royalties for reruns of their dramas. Diyar e Dil, one of his most well-known dramas, has aired several times not only in Pakistan but also in India. Following the video of Nayla Jaffri on social media, he has returned to the fore, highlighting the topic, while Yasir Hussain has also posted about it. He’s been tagging and telling fellow actors if they’re up for taking a stance against this on his latest Instagram posts. He further mentioned that this is their right, not a charity.
