Daily Times

‘Baaji’ is going to release on Friday not only in Pakistan but internationally as well. It will be screened in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and a few Scandinavian countries.

‘Baaji’ will mark the comeback of veteran actress Meera Ji in the cinema industry after a gap of more than 10 years.

‘Baaji’ is not a typical love troika or a romantic comedy rather it’s a story that revolves around the lives of two women Shameera played by Meera Ji and Neha played by model-turned-actress Amna Ilyas who are competing with each other.

‘Baaji’ will mark the debut of Saqib Malik as director. Prior to making ‘Baaji’, Saqib Malik has more than 30 years’ experience of making commercials and music videos.

In a conversation about his directorial debut film ‘Baaji’, Malik was of the opinion, that when the idea of ‘Baaji’ was shared with him, he instantly liked it and decided to make a film on this topic.

“I wanted to make a film for a very long time and for me; ‘Baaji’ was the right picture at the right time. This picture is about a superstar who is in a state of transition. The film is a story of a star who was a heartthrob of yesteryears but went in the background and now she’s making a comeback. Many characters of this film revolve around this superstar. In my opinion, this film is relevant to our audience and to the situation in Pakistan’s cinema industry which is also in a transition phase. While selecting the cast, I wondered which actor or actress would fit the bill. I’m delighted to have a dream cast as all cast members fit perfectly with their character. The entire film has been made in Pakistan. Some of the locations include Lahore, Karachi and the northern areas. During shooting, one has various incidents out of which, some are worth enjoying while some are of serious nature. During the shooting of one of our scenes, Amna Ilyas got injured and she had to go on bed rest for three weeks. This disturbed our schedule a little bit but still we are able to complete our shooting according to schedule. We completed our shooting in 10 months and making this film was a pleasurable experience for me. Nothing can prepare you for filmmaking because film is such a deep ocean. This was a huge project. I had no idea that we have to put so much effort in filmmaking but once we started, we had to complete it. I’ve 30 years of experience and all this experience helped me while making this film,” Malik says.

Talking about criticism, Malik said that he had put his heart and soul in making ‘Baaji’ and he hopes people will not criticise it for the sake of criticising but if it’s constructive criticism, he’ll listen to it and try to learn from it.

“A good story is a good story and a good cast is a good cast. The story of this film is similar to that of the films made in 1960s and the ’70s. I hope audience will like this film as it has a lot for audience including good characters, enjoyable music and the ‘zara hut ke’ factor. Also, the audience want to see diversity. Songs are part of our cinema culture and I have kept a lot of music in this film for the audience to enjoy. I myself like songs and dances. ‘Baaji’ has eight songs and the audience will like them. Mehwish Hayat will also be appearing in one song titled ‘Gangster Guriya’,” he said.

The downfall of our industry started 20 years ago. Fresh faces and new ideas were not coming in. The conditions of the cinemas were declining. The technique of making films was also obsolete. The number of actors and actresses shrank and all the films had the same cast.

“I’m happy that our current cinema is like the cinema of our golden age with a vigour to reach new heights. A good aspect of today’s filmmaking is that qualified people from all walks of life are venturing in. Today, all our films are different from each other and our filmmakers are confident. We’re competing locally and internationally and today, our successful films do more business then Bollywood films. I want people to go and watch ‘Baaji’ as the purpose of the movie is to take the audience to another world and this is what I am expecting from the film. I hope the audience coming out of the cinema after watching ‘Baaji’ will think as if they were taken to a unique journey. I’m optimistic ‘Baaji’ will start a trend of more serious story-based movies,” he shared.

The writer is a freelance journalist. He can be reached at kzk1972@gmail.com and Tweets at @KhurramZiaKhan