Youth Icon

Youth Icons




There is no set definition of a youth icon. However, a youth icon is similar to a role model. A role model, according to Robert Merton an American sociologist, is a person who serves as an example, and whose behaviour is emulated by others.
True role models are those who possess the qualities that we would like to have and those who have affected us in a way that makes us want to be better people.
The question is; does Ali Zafar inspire you to be a better person? When we search the internet, and look for youth icons in Pakistan the only name that comes up is that of Ali Zafar. He is a singer, model and an actor. And he won a new award which was introduced by Lux last year, that of a youth icon. In his acceptance speech he said, “It is humility that takes you forward, not clothes and style.” Under the circumstances I can’t get over the irony of it all.
I attempted to contact the sponsors of this event, Unilever Pakistan, in the hopes of finding out what the criterion for the award was, and who the other nominees were. After calling and talking to the operator a number of times my call was finally put through. Only, no one picked up my call. The operator said that I was being connected to the production department, but no one was there. That came as a bit of a shock to me, because a department does not consist of one person only and it is not possible that no one came to work. I knew that I wasn’t getting any answers from them.
I searched the internet and found out the names of the judges of the event. Yousaf Salahuddin was on the panel for the first three years. I managed to get his number from a friend. On calling him I found out that the youth icon was chosen by the judges and there weren’t any nominees. He was unable to give me more information as he had nothing to do with the judging process. He then gave me Freiha Altaf’s phone number. I called her, and she told me to call her in the evening. When I called her in the evening she gave me her PR managers’ phone number, Ali Chaudhry. I was told that he will answer all my questions. I called him and asked if he could tell me the basis on which Ali Zafar was given the award. I assumed that he will know, as Freiha Altaf represents Ali Zafar. Surprisingly, he had no idea why Ali Zafar got the award for youth icon. He asked me to send him my email address and phone number. He also told me that he will find out the criterion and send me the information as soon as possible. Call me pessimistic, but I doubt I am getting any information out of him.
Since I was getting no information from the organizers and sponsors of the event, I decided to search the internet. (Yet again)
Just to find out if anyone in Pakistan had ever carried out a survey to find out who the youth of our country looked up to. I came up with nothing. There were countless fan clubs and online communities for Shahrukh Khan, but none for Jahangir Khan.
I then looked at the list of winners of the Lux style awards, from 2004 onwards. The same people had been awarded, either in the same category or in another one. So to consider Ali Zafar a youth icon after this little discovery would be most unfair.
Rizwan Beyg
Achievement in design 10 + years: won in 2006 and 2007

Creative team at Nabila
Best hair and make-up: won in2004, 2006 and 2007
Deepak Parwani
Best menswear designer: won in 2004 and 2007

Karma
Best Pret wear designer: won 2007
Best designer women’s’ wear 2004
Ali Zafar
Best music Album/singer: won in 2004
Youth Icon: won in 2007

Other names that came up repeatedly were,
Syed Noor
Saima
Reema


The youth Icon was chosen by the judges, in my opinion the youth should have been the one to select their icon. Most people I know dislike the feminine side of Ali Zafar. I do remember a time when women were crazy about him, but I doubt they ever wanted to ‘be’ him, or copy him for that matter. Ali Zafar admits openly that he is inspired by Kishore Kumar. How can one want to have his qualities, when he himself is a copy cat. Whatever happened to originality?