The Kenneyz Group Holdings on Tuesday announced the production of their first feature film about the story of a girl living in Karachi in collaboration with NUM Films.
A press conference at a hotel in Karachi was told that David Kenney and his wife Agnes Kenney were the executive producers of the film titled ‘Nayab’, and the script for the film had been written and its production was under way.
Speaking at the event, David said the Kenneyz Group was involved in the recent production of the national anthem of Pakistan. He said they decided to support the Pakistani industry after realising the talent lying here.
He said he wanted to help the Pakistani filmmakers by providing them modern cameras. Regarding the decision to produce a film, he said it was the script that attracted them. “This will be our first movie, not our last,” he said.
The film’s director, Umair Nasir Ali, said he wanted to make a film that told a relatable story. He said that after copying Bollywood for a long time, the Pakistani cinema had started to carve its own identity. He named three films of 2022 — Kamli, Joyland and Legend of Maula Jutt — as a breath of fresh air in the film landscape of the country.
Ali said the protagonist of the film being directed by him was a girl with cricket talents for which they had cast Yumna Zaidi. He said they approached Yumna for the role because she tended to play only those roles that had some substance.
The other cast members include veteran film actor Javed Shaikh and acclaimed theatre artist Fawad Khan, not to be confused with his namesake who had played the lead role in the Legend of Maula Jatt.
Khan, who has been writing, directing and acting for theatre for many years, will be acting in a feature film for the first time. He said he knew the script writers, Ali Abbas Naqvi and Basir Naqvi, and wanted to work with them as they created real life characters. Shaikh said he believed that after the film was completed, it would win international awards. He also welcomed Khan to the film industry.