Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" '' television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
host, actor, scriptwriter and impressionist. He became a contestant in Bigg Boss 4 in 2010. He broke into the mainstream audiences through his impersonations of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and later playing the
cross-dress
Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself.
Cross-dressing has play ...
ing Begum Nawazish Ali on various television channels, including the
Aaj TV
''Aaj News'' () is a 24-hour Pakistani news television channel. It is a privately owned Urdu language TV station which covers national and international news. The channel started out as hybrid channel (news, current affairs and entertainment), ...
network,
Dawn News
Dawn News is one of Pakistan's 24-hour Urdu news channel. Based in Karachi, the station is a subsidiary of Pakistan Herald Publications Limited (PHPL), Pakistan's largest English-language media group.
The test transmission of the station occ ...
and
Geo TV
Geo Television Network is a television channel based in Pakistan. It was established in May 2002 and is owned by the Jang Media Group. The channel began its test transmission on 14 August 2002, with regular transmission beginning on 1 October 2 ...
network. His alter ego of Begum Nawazish Ali has now become his primary persona as he rarely appears as the male Ali Saleem. He is a bisexual man born to a retired colonel father in Pakistan Army
and his wife, a former government official.
Biologically born a male, Ali has sometimes called himself gay,
bisexual
or at other times even a transsexual.
Early life and being Ali Benazir
Benazir was born in
Islamabad
Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...
to a colonel in the Pakistan Army.
From a young age, he desired and fantasized about being a woman.
It was in his teens that he got to do a play for Yasmeen Ismail at the Arts Council clad in a
burqa
A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...
offering the audience with his monologue that people saw his inner lady come out. They would flock him and ask him in disbelief of how a child can impersonate a woman older than his age. Ali now says that because his audience was older than his age then, he felt he matured earlier. Ali took his early life education from Cadet College Hasanabdal, Attock and later went to Froebel's International School for A'level
His breakthrough in the entertainment industry came when he started imitating his childhood heroine, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, from the way she talked to the way she dressed. So loved were his performances that on the occasion of
Zohaib Hassan
Zoheb Hassan (born November 18, 1966) is a Pakistani pop icon, singer, songwriter, producer, and was a part of the superduo Nazia and Zoheb.
Early career and breakthrough
Zoheb and his sister Nazia spent their childhood in Karachi as well as ...
's '' dholki'', Bhutto herself asked Ali to impersonate her. Zohaib's sister Nazia had warned Ali not imitate the prime minister. But, eventually, when asked he even made the prime minister Benazir Bhutto burst out in laughter and appreciated the performance.
Birth of Begum Nawazish Ali
His father and mother would soon seek a divorce, during which Ali had to come to the city of
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
. There he came to terms with Imran Aslam, a political satire writer who would tell him of a television channel in the pipeline, that would later be called
Geo TV
Geo Television Network is a television channel based in Pakistan. It was established in May 2002 and is owned by the Jang Media Group. The channel began its test transmission on 14 August 2002, with regular transmission beginning on 1 October 2 ...
. Ali's Benazir impressions were famous among his friends and Imran told him to take it to the airways with the television channel once it got aired. A show dealing with political humour around the time of election in the country aptly named ''Hum Sub Umeed Se Hai'' (idiomatically translated as We Are All Expecting (Pregnant), but meant to translate as We Are All Hopeful) showed people impersonating the election candidates. Ali did his Benazir act there for the first time on
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
.
After a while with the act, Ali came to realise that the act alone would not shape his career and he had to do more with his talent. It was from this very act that Ali gained the nickname ''BB'' or ''bibi'' meaning lady in
Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" '' Omar Adil, an orthopaedic surgeon by profession, doctor to Madam Noor Jehan, was a close friend of his. With an extensive research into Pakistani cinema under his belt and ties to multiple television channels, the doctor suggested Ali with the idea of having a dragged-up character as a host for a talk show. Thus, Begum Nawazish was born.
''Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali''
Ali cross-dresses as a woman wearing a
sari
A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include:
* as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO
* bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO
* gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std ...
and asks influential guests provocative questions in his show ''
Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali
Late may refer to:
* LATE, an acronym which could stand for:
** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia
** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law
** Local average treatment effect, ...
''. He would invite two guests at a time to be interviewed. The name Begum Nawazish Ali was suggested by Dr. Adil talking of his neighbour with the same name, wife to a colonel. Ali could relate strongly to this persona as an alter ego. The facts that the Begum they created lived a wealthy life living off the money of her late armyman husband and was a socialite, bore resemblance to the life Ali himself had lived in his earlier days. The rights to the show were sold to
Aaj TV
''Aaj News'' () is a 24-hour Pakistani news television channel. It is a privately owned Urdu language TV station which covers national and international news. The channel started out as hybrid channel (news, current affairs and entertainment), ...
where the show airs every Saturday night.
Courting controversy
The show has invited the likes of business tycoons, industrialists, actors and actresses, government and religious leaders. Begum would flirt with any one of the male guests "using suggestive banter and sexual innuendo".
It's just this use of gestures and acts that Begum has earned a nasty reputation amongst the more fundamentalist ideals of the religious leaders (where some are even amused by his show)
but has still ventured into the hearts and minds of the younger generations. While talking of taboo topics like "sex" in Pakistan where it is strictly off-limits even trying to mention it, Ali has been spared a backlash only because when on-the-air he is personifying a woman. Women, however, say that they are still afraid to do what Ali is doing on the show.
Where television talk shows in Pakistan are reluctant to take on criticism for the military backed Pakistani government, Begum had always been critical of a general seated as a president. Due to these critical claims, former Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf
General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...
was opposed to the show's airing. This fair bit of opposition led to the temporary closure of the show. Offers however extended from across the border in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
for a follow-up of the show by the name ''Begum''.
The reformatted show aired 26 episodes with Indian celebrities on the channel 9X from India.
''The Late, Late Show With Ali Saleem''
Ali Saleem joined DawnNews with his latest show ''The Late, Late Show with Ali Saleem''. Ali Saleem will be hosting the show as himself. The first episode is to be aired on Saturday 26 March 2016. Humayun Saeed, Nadeem Baig and Mehwish Hayat appeared as guests on the first episode.
Property disputes with mother
Reportedly on 26 May 2011 Ali Saleem's mother Farzana Saleem called the capital city police and told them that her son has been torturing her. She was immediately taken to the hospital with a broken nose and other injuries on her body while Ali Saleem was taken to police station. Ali told media personal that there was some dispute going on within the family about property.