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Sorry all set for a 2019 release

By Aamna Haider Isani
Tue, 10, 18

Faisal Quraishi and Sohail Javed collaborate for their first feature film together as producer-director and reveal details in a press conference recently held in Karachi.

The kind of camaraderie that Pakistan’s television industry enjoys was apparent at a press conference, held this Friday in Karachi, to announce a film that Faisal Quraishi and Sohail Javed are making together. Titled Sorry: A Love Story, the film – from Faisal Quraishi Films and SJ Films in collaboration – features Faisal Quraishi, Aamina Sheikh, Zahid Ahmed and Sonya Hussyn in lead roles. It was great to see so many people from the film and TV industry turn up to support Faisal and Sohail, who share a great history in the industry. One is a veteran actor, with countless TV drama serials as well as around 19 films to his credit, while the other is an actor and more popularly, a music video director, who most recently directed the star-studded video of ‘Tillay Wale Jooti’ for JPNA 2.

There was a lot of support for the two, most prominently from Humayun Saeed and Fahad Mustafa, who not only turned up but even tweeted their support to Faisal later.

Veteran actor Nadeem Baig, who’s appeared in over 200 films in a career that spans over 40 years, had encouraging things to say about the revival of the film industry and its promising future.

“The good thing is that films are being revived,” he said. “There is an induction of young, fresh blood. Good, quality films are being made and the technology is getting better. We have so much talent in Pakistan and I’m sure we’ll get to see fabulous films up ahead.”

2019 certainly is gearing up for Pakistani cinema. We already know that Bilal Lashari’s Maula Jatt will release on Eid ul Fitr and will go head to head with Wajahat Rauf’s Karachi Se Lahore 3, which is (inexplicably) releasing at the same time. Asim Raza’s Parey Hut Love and Saqib Malik’s Baaji, starring Meera, are also 2019 films though their release dates have not been determined. Directors Nadeem Baig and Nabeel Qureshi have a tradition of releasing films on Eid ul Azha, but they haven’t announced anything for 2019 yet.

Keeping the yearly battle for Eid dates in mind, Faisal and Sohail were asked whether they too would be releasing Sorry over these prime dates.

“I’m trying to NOT release my film over Eid because two of my dear friends (referring to Nadeem Baig and Nabeel Qureshi, who were at the event) have created a tradition of creating a hungama over Eid,” Faisal smiled. Sanity prevails.

The conversation steered towards the story and screenplay of the film, which Sohail Javed admitted to be working on for quite some time now. He shared how he began writing the story and then went to Asma Nabeel for help when he got stuck.

“It’s complicated,” he said. “I started writing this two years ago. Faisal got involved. And then I asked Asma Nabeel to come onboard too.”

The cast, seated on stage with the producer and director, all had great things to say about the project.

“I am extremely blessed and over the moon to be sharing the stage with such fabulous actors,” said Zahid Ahmed. “This is a film that is driven by its story and characters. I consider myself very lucky that this is my first film.”

Eventually the floor opened up to the media, for questions, and the session turned quite animated. One journalist in the audience asked when Pakistani films would stop being so inspired by Bollywood.

“There is a lot of original content being made,” Sohail Javed replied, somewhat irritably. “Motorcyle Girl, Cake and even Punjab Nahi Jaungi was purely Pakistani. Just because we have songs doesn’t make our films like Bollywood. We’ve had songs in our films since day one. We’ve also been brainwashed into thinking that if we dress a certain way, we’re copying Bollywood. That isn’t true either.”

Speaking of music, Faisal pointed out that with Sohail’s association with music, it was expected that Sorry would have a strong soundtrack. He revealed that Abbas Ali Khan would be composing the OST and there would be 7 songs, including one from Bilal Maqsood.

With all elements in place, the film, which is scheduled for an undetermined date in 2019, was chalked up as one to look forward to next year. “50 shades of love” is how Aamina Sheikh described it, confirming that it was a pure romance and not necessarily a tragedy as the name suggested.