Sarwat Gillani plans to revolutionize Pakistani cinema with women-centric films

With the Pakistani film industry flourishing, stalwarts from the showbiz scene like Sarwat Gillani have expressed their desire to revolutionize the medium through women-centric films.

The 35-year-old actor in her interview with BBC Urdu laid out her plan of reforming the industry through not just improved representation of women on screen but making sure they get crucial parts off-screen as well.

The Mata-e-Jaan starlet revealed that her friends from the industry like Mahira Khan, Aamina Sheikh and Sanam Saeed are in quest for a women’s collective that would help them in attaining the goal.

“We have rich friends, people who want to invest in films. We each bring 10 people, we start with four films. The topics can be about men and women, but we want to [create a set culture where] camerawomen are also present and women are hired as spotboys too," she stated.

Moreover, Sarwat went on to express her displeasure at her recently released Jawani Phir Nahi Aani 2 (JPNA 2) which she expected would have female-centric elements to it.

 “They said our people aren't ready for female-centric cinema yet. The unfortunate thing is that men take their families to watch films in the cinema, they want to see themselves as heroes."

She revealed further: “There are very few people who would think beyond themselves, think of society, think of the woman to come after her. There are very few people to do this. It's a difficult undertaking in itself because channels don't support this, individual producers don't support this, we keep talking about it but we have to build a platform."