ZIA MOHYEDDIN-International name, international fame
'A man of many parts' is how Zia Mohyeddin might describe himself.
A fastidious aesthete with a particular interest in literature and classical
music, his passion for theatre was visible in his student days
as a member of the Government College Dramatic Club (GCDC) Lahore. After studying at
the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (1953-56) he returned to do some memorable productions,
notably 'Julius Caesar' and 'Long Daya Journey into Night' in 1957,
as well as 'Khwaja Moinuddin' and other productions.
In 1960 he took on the role of Dr. Aziz in 'Passage to India',
staged in the West End and Broadway continously for about three years,
and did the film in 1963-64. He also did several other films,
televisioin roles and plays, the most prominent Pakistani actor on the
scene, but returned to Pakistan in the early 1970s on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's
insistence that he set up the PIA Arts and Dance Academy. This wasa also the period of the
stylish Zia Mohyeddin show which ran for two seasons, and set the pattern for talk shows on PTV.
mohyeddin retuned to England in 1975, disenchanted with the
Bhutto regime, and began working in a more directoral capacity, occasionally taking on film roles.
He again returned to Pakistan in 1995, where his Urdu poetry and prose recitations have become legend,
and which take him all over the country, and indeed the world.
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