Pakistani stars Sana Javed and Umair Jaswal shop in Dubai, finding love and life after COVID-19

When it comes to shopping, Pakistani celebrity couple Sana Javed and Umair Jaswal are poles apart. He’s the kind of customer who walks into a store and picks things up from a rack with military precision. He knows his size, what suits him well, and he is always armed with a list that he wants to tick off effectively; it is purely transactional.

But when it comes to his wife actress Javed, she walks on a different tune during her retail therapy time. She’s a proud shopaholic, while her husband and singer-songwriter and actor Jaswal is usually that token indulgent partner who dozes off on a store sofa while his wife deliberates over clothes and shoes. Sometimes it can take hours or days to focus on one outfit, but the sign of a good husband is also supporting the wife during her shopathon, he jokes.

“I’m not doing my cardio that day because we end up walking 25,000 steps… And may I add, thank you guys for putting those little little sofas in all your stores in Dubai. People like me thank you, ”Jaswal said with a laugh.

While his quick shopping expedition to Dubai usually allows him to carry around 20 bags, overflowing with purchases, his wife Javed often returns with a small bag, despite having a full day at the mall.

“I need a minimum of five days to shop in Dubai… I want to try everything and I want to be sure that I really like the things I receive… I also ask for approval from those around me and this all takes time. . I only buy if I’m doubly sure and never give it back, ”said Javed, looking adoringly at her husband, whom she married in 2020.

Javed has a soft spot for bags and is now convincing her reluctant husband that luxury brands can be a good investment, as can real estate and gold.

The beautiful couple, who recently received the honor of the UAE Golden Visa, are in the country this week to make the most of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), while also enjoying the city.

“DSF has so much to offer… The other day we had the chance to explore the old market in Al Seef, and then the fireworks just went off. It made our experience much more magical, ”said Jaswal.

But it hasn’t been an easy year for the couple. The lockdown phase, triggered globally by the COVID-19 pandemic, has taken its toll on both.

Javed, whose credits include the hit TV series “Pyarey Afzal” and “Zara Yaad Kar”, reveals that she gained a lot of weight during this phase because she couldn’t handle the uncertainty that overwhelmed everyone.

“I was very, very overweight. I was so depressed because I’ve always been so fit… I put on around 10kg and I’m still losing it all, ”Javed said, pointing to his physique in an all-black ensemble.

To be fair, Javed looked perfect, but she insists she went through a funk phase where her morale was low and she had to get out of those dark, sobering moments.

Her rockstar husband Jaswal also agrees, but points out that the lockdown gave them the opportunity to get to know each other as a couple. While Jaswal is a popular musician in Pakistan, Javed is one of the most sought-after talents on Pakistani television.

“I always say, ‘I think we had 10 years of marriage in a year, because we saw each other so much”… but Sana still had so many offers. So she continued to shoot and I continued to write, ”Jaswal said.

Yet like most musicians around the world, he missed performing live and feeding off the energy of a live audience.

“It has been a disappointment for me over the past two years because I live to be on stage… This phase has given me a new opportunity to work on new music. But yeah, we’re both depressed and we’ve both gained a lot of weight, ”Jaswal said.

Yet this couple stood next to each other to get through the sobering up phase. While Javed is his greatest cheerleader and loves the songs he writes, Jaswal also understands his process as an actor.

His only grouse? “She has this habit of picking up the toughest stories and the toughest characters. I have enormous respect for the work she does, but she really gets involved in her characters. So we don’t like to talk about her work at home… She gets involved with the character and she brings her characters home, ”Jaswal said. His wife and actress gently intervenes, saying that this is his process and that it is getting “really difficult”. When she’s in character, she tends to take home her character’s trials and tribulations.

“My process is getting very, very painful. I once played a rape survivor and had health issues after that role. I managed to move on, but it was very difficult, ”said Javed, referring to his defining performance in“ Ruswai ”. At the time of filming, she took to her Instagram to reveal that she had given everything for every scene on this project.

“It took more than that, it resulted in death inside a million times and more, which will always be less than the real victims of abuse. Let us stand in solidarity against any harassment, ”she wrote at the time.

But such roles give him purpose and joy. And, her husband does his best to support her acting calls and she does the same for him.

“I always show her my new songs, but she confuses me more because she loves all of my songs and thinks I should make a video on each of them. If I have 26 songs and we have to choose eight songs for my album, she can’t help me decide because she finds each of my songs amazing and that doesn’t help, ”Jaswal said.

It is clear from their chemistry that the two Pakistani stars are still in this honeymoon phase where they love and respect each other and their work. Although she gravitates towards dark, disturbing and troubled dramas, he reluctantly admits that he continues to hope that she takes on light projects. All he wants is for her to be cheerful and happy.

“Every time she does these dark dramas I’m very happy for her. But when she’s playing a comedy I know she’s going to be happy for the next six months… but as a partner I have to respect her process. creative and she respects mine, ”Jaswal said.

His songwriting process involves shutting himself off from the world and working on his compositions while his wife and household are sleeping.

“I need my alone time to write. And she gives me that and she never complains that I’ve been away for a long time. Even though my dog ​​approaches me as I write I’m distracted… she respects my process and I know I’m married to her multiple personas that she takes on, ”he said. But work or no work, they like to spend time together. But they made the conscious decision to separate their professional life.

“When we got married, we had a lot of work offered together as a couple. But we decided not to do that and to keep our wedding private. We wanted to keep this aspect of our life private because everything else in our life is open to all kinds of comments and opinions. So if you open this door once, then it’s hard to close it, ”Jaswal said. Even their positions as a couple are limited.

“A lot of people ask me why she’s not in my videos or why we don’t act together… But our personal life is very personal to us. We don’t want to use each other’s platforms or our marriage to promote each other, ”Jaswal said.

While they may not work together for the foreseeable future, they are a couple who enjoy vacationing together.

“Dubai is like a second home to me and I can’t wait for us to shop together,” Javed said, as her husband grimaced in horror. She also promises him that she will be part of his travelogue show on his bike if he agrees to be a patient partner when shopping.

“I want to go with him on his bike and chase the sunset together,” Javed said.

“All this OTT [over-the-top or digital] the platform is a great equalizer… Now many actors are not just big movie stars, they are getting bigger and bigger in terms of power and access. ”

– Umair Jaswal