Daily Times

Actor Noor Bukhari, who worked in many Punjabi and Urdu language films like Mujhe Chand Chahiye, Zill-e-Shah and Billi before taking a bow from acting, opened up on why she hasn’t watched Bilal Lashari’s blockbuster film, The Legend of Maula Jatt. In conversation with a local news channel, Bukhari shared her disappointment at viewers and fellow actors embracing the gandasa culture in the Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan-starrer. “I remembered a thing when the film was released but kept quiet about it because then people say that I keep criticising the industry,” she said.

Bukhari claimed that those acting in the film or praising it are the same people who’d make fun of her and filmmaker Shaan Shahid for their Punjabi films back in the day. “I know this because I used to work in the industry too. They’d make fun of me, of Shaan and of everyone working in Punjabi films. ‘Yeh kya lacha gutta pehan ke punjabi mai bol rahe ho? (Why do you have to wear such clothes and speak Punjabi’ they would say. ‘Why does Shaan have to do all of this?'” she exclaimed.

“So, now that this film has been released, I wonder why no one has asked why Fawad or why Mahira did it. I always felt a little uneasy because of that and perhaps, that’s why I still haven’t watched it,” she confessed. The Legend of Maula Jatt, released in October 2022, also stars Humaima Malick, Hamza Ali Abbasi, Faris Shafi, Gohar Rasheed and Ali Azmat in pivotal roles.