Ismail Tara

[1] Beginning in 1964, he worked in stage plays, television serials and Lollywood films till his death in 2022.

[2] He was a five time Nigar Awards winner for the best comedian in Haathi Mere Saathi (1993), Aakhri Mujra (1994), Munda Bigra Jaye (1995), Chief Sahib (1996) and Deewarein (1998).

Tara was born Muhammad Ismail Merchant in Karachi into a Gujarati-speaking Memon business family, and began his career in 1964, at the age of 15, when he got a role in a play staged by a small theatre.

[3] Tara is best known for the popular TV show Fifty Fifty, ending up writing some of its scripts along with fellow TV comedian Majid Jahangir when the original scriptwriter Anwar Maqsood had a fall-out with the show's cast in 1981.

[5] Tara died due to kidney failure in Karachi on 24 November 2022, at the age of 73.