Pop Star Ali Zafar Picks Up the Brush after 7 Years for Flood Victims

The alumni association of the College of Art and Design is arranging a national exhibition of paintings and graphic arts at the Alhamra Art Galleries in Lahore on September 20, featuring over a hundred Pakistani artists, including Anna Molka Ahmad, Saeed Akhtar, Dr Rahat Naveed and Salima Hashmi. The income will be utilized for the rehabilitation of people affected by the recent deadliest floods in Pakistan. The exhibition will travel to other cities like Islamabad, Faisalabad and Karachi.

In this elite crowd of famous artists, is Zafar and his son. Ali Zafar, who debuted in Tere Bin Laden, has been pianting since he was a child and has a degree in fine arts. At 18, he started doing 20-minute charcoal portraits in a hotel lobby. He sold them for Rs 500 a piece to raise money for his music albums and videos.
Tere Bin LadenTitanic had just released. Some women would hint for a painting like the one Leonardo DiCaprio makes for Kate Winslet. One of them was his wife, whom he later painted in acrylic.

“After I graduated, I stopped selling my works. Once I got busy with music, I stopped painting. I picked up the brush after seven years when my father asked me to be a part of this exhibition,” says Zafar. “For the last two days, he’s been trying to figure out what to paint.”
He’s also arranging fund-raising concerts in October for which he plans to rope in international and Bollywood artistes. Talking about Pakistan’s biggest disaster, he informs that many areas will have to be reconstructed: “People have to be provided with food, homes and medicines as diseases break out. It’s a long-term commitment, I’ll do my bit.”