Photos: Murtaza Ali/WhiteStar
A guttural, heavy cackle comes out of Nayyar Ejaz when I ask him if he’s ever compared to the late, great Amresh Puri.
“It’s a compliment I’ve gotten many, many times. I think of it as an achievement,” he tells me. “The villains he played often dominated films, but even the positive characters he played weren’t second-fiddle either.”
Like Puri, Ejaz tells me he too has played some positive characters that were popular, such as his character from the PTV play Bhanwar. But that was a long time ago, in an entertainment world leagues different from today’s.