Post the national success of ‘Ranjha Ranjha Kardi,’ Syed Jibran’s already got a handful of projects to cherrypick from. The actor, however, didn’t always intend to venture into television, and rather stumbled across it on chance. He sat down with Samina Peerzada and revealed interesting details about how he became an actor.
Jibran got his MBBS degree from Rawalpindi Medical College and revealed that it was during his third year when he got into acting.
He never thought about becoming an actor.
Jibran was sitting with his friend in the cafeteria one afternoon, where there was a ‘Jazz Girl’ poster of Zara Sheikh. He’d often look at the poster in awe and wonderment with his friend, and that’s how it started – his friend insisted that not everyone can become an actor, but Jibran adamantly said that anyone can be an actor. Jibran’s friend then placed a Rs 100 bet with him to get onto television.
To win the bet, Jibran found his way getting interviewed by Sajjad Gul through contacts at Evernew Studios – Sajjad sent Jibran back, telling him to finish his MBBS then come back.
Jibran’s first role was on PTV in a small sitcom; he had one dialogue to say – “kya hua ma?” He continued to get small offers but nothing of substance; Jibran dived back into his studies and confessed that he emailed Samina Peerzada continually that he wanted to pursue acting.
One day he got a call from PTV when he was in his fourth year of college; he was offered the lead of an Eid play.
He informed his parents that he wanted to do the play, and both were very supportive; “they were confused and happy because they wondered what I was doing,” Jibran laughed. His father had one condition for being an actor – to complete his degree.
Jibran never practiced his MBBS degree. He moved to Karachi during the dawn of Hum TV and never looked back.
Here’s the full episode: