It looks like there is no stopping the Pakistani short, Rani, starring transgender model and activist Kami Sid. The film “follows the story of a Pakistani transgender who sets out to take care of an unwanted baby”.
It looks like there is no stopping the Pakistani short, Rani, starring transgender model and activist Kami Sid. The film “follows the story of a Pakistani transgender who sets out to take care of an unwanted baby”.
Having collected a series of awards and nominations at several international festivals, the film is now set to make its Pakistan premiere at the 10th edition of Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), on March 3rd, this year. Akbar Allana, CEO of GrayScale that has co-produced the film, confirmed recently.
In a conversation with Instep, co-producer Akbar Allana explained why they chose KLF 2019 as a platform for the film’s Pakistan premiere screening. “Yes, its Rani’s first public screening in Pakistan - at KLF 2019. We applied to a bunch of places and they (KLF) were the first ones to get back to us. The timing also worked for us. February/March is around the time we wanted to release it so the dates worked out,” said Akbar.
Akbar noted that the team didn’t expect this kind of response for the film. “When we made it, we didn’t think it would be this popular, especially not here. We were thinking internationally, to get into festivals, but we didn’t expect the kind of popularity it has generated locally. Obviously, a lot of it has to do with Kami Sid’s public persona and her celebrity status. It’s good, I think, right place, right time, that kind of thing.”
Written and directed by Hammad Rizvi, Rani is a co-production between GrayScale and Rizvilla Productions. The latter is owned by director Hammad Rizvi, who resides in US and is of Pakistani origin. “We joined forces for Rani,” added Akbar.
