Skip to content
ShowBuzzDramas · Movies · Shows
Menu
DramasMoviesUpcomingBlockbustersShowsCelebritiesCelebrity newsAboutContact
Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, in a public-domain photograph from Wikimedia Commons
Photograph: VOA Urdu on YouTube. Licence: Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons, File:Sarmad Khoosat.jpg. Licence confirmed on the Commons file page on 22 October 2026. ShowBuzz resized the file and converted it to WebP for page speed, and did not otherwise alter it.

Celebrities / Director

Sarmad Sultan Khoosat

Director, actor, producer and screenwriter

Sarmad Sultan Khoosat is a director, actor, producer and screenwriter, and one of the most influential figures in contemporary Pakistani screen work. He is the son of the actor and comedian Irfan Khoosat and of Zahida Butt, a PTV newscaster.

On television he directed two of the defining serials of the early 2010s: Humsafar (2011), with Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan, and Shehr-e-Zaat (2012). He also played the writer Saadat Hasan Manto in his own film Manto (2015). His film Zindagi Tamasha (2019) premiered at the 24th Busan International Film Festival, where it won the Kim Ji-Seok Award. It was selected as Pakistan's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, and it won several awards at the 6th Asian World Film Festival.

His later work includes the acclaimed films Joyland and Kamli (both 2022) and Lali (2026). On this guide he is credited as the director of Humsafar and Shehr-e-Zaat, both of which sit in the all-time drama ranking.

He studied at Government College University, Lahore, where he earned a master's in psychology with a gold medal. He first became known in 2001 for the sitcom Shashlik on PTV, which he wrote, directed and acted in, with Nadia Afgan and his father in the cast. He went on to direct the Geo telefilm series Tamasha Ghar (2003) and Kalmoohi, an adaptation of Tagore's Chokher Bali.

Credits in detail

Humsafar (2011) aired on HUM TV. Sarmad Sultan Khoosat directed it; the serial is written by Farhat Ishtiaq. Also in the cast: Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and Naveen Waqar.

Shehr-e-Zaat (2012) aired on HUM TV. Sarmad Sultan Khoosat directed it; the serial is written by Umera Ahmed. Also in the cast: Mahira Khan, Mikaal Zulfiqar and Mohib Mirza.

Known for

Humsafar · Shehr-e-Zaat · Zindagi Tamasha

Work on ShowBuzz

  • Humsafar

    Drama · HUM TV · 2011 · Director. After her father Baseerat dies, Khirad marries her cousin Ashar and leaves Hyderabad for his Karachi house. Ashar’s mother never accepts her. A jealous Sara and that mother-in-law build a lie that separates the couple, including from the daughter Khirad later raises. The serial is still the drama people mean when they say Pakistani television went global.

  • Shehr-e-Zaat

    Drama · HUM TV · 2012 · Director. Umera Ahmed’s novella about a young woman who has organised her life around being admired, and what is left when that collapses. Mahira Khan leads. Sarmad Khoosat directs.

Sources