Daily Times

Actor and director Sarmad Khoosat cleared the air and addressed the recent controversy related to his upcoming film ‘Zindagi Tamasha.’

Khoosat’s film ran into some trouble back home even before its release. Earlier this week the trailer of Zindagi Tamasha was taken down from YouTube, much to fans’ disappointment. It will be uploaded once again with minor changes.

During a press conference on Thursday, the directed has said that the decision was made after some people raised concerns over certain scenes featured in the trailer. According to the trailer, the film aims to shed a light on the misuse of the blasphemy law.

“Khoosat Films took down the trailer from YouTube themselves. A trailer is just a tiny part of the entire film, there is no context so a few people had some issues regarding the content of that clip and we took that into account. After minor tweaks, we’ll re-upload it soon enough,” Sarmad Khoosat said.

He remarked that he only wants to tell a story and stated that it’s not a news report.

“I am not expressing anger at all. Perhaps viewing a few short excerpts from an otherwise long film has led some to make assumptions about my intentions. All I am doing is telling a story with a very meticulous approach.” he said

The Manto actor said that after the trailer was uploaded, the film was called for a second review.

Earlier, Zindagi Tamasha was given universal clearance certificates from the Islamabad, Punjab and Sindh boards and was supposed to release in January.

However, the federal board had ordered a few minor omissions in the film.

“I respect the institutions, I might have ideological and intellectual differences but I understand where they are coming from,” said he. Khoosat also revealed that the film is slated to release on January 24.

The trailer painted an obscure and grim picture that holds up a spine chilling mirror to our society.

It narrates the story of a naat khwan named Rahat Khawaja (played by Arif Hassan) and his family who find themselves ostracised when a video of Khawaja becomes public.

After the video goes viral, even his own daughter, Sadaf (played by Eman Suleman) is ashamed of him.

Along with Hassan and Suleman, the cast includes Ali Qureshi, Samiya Mumtaz, and Imran Khoosat.

In October, Zindagi Tamasha created a major buzz when it won big at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. Khoosat’s directorial also won The Kim Ji-Seok Award, named after the festival’s co-founder and executive programmer who died in 2017.

The filmmaker shared the award with Pradip Kurbah, whose film ‘Market’ was also being screened at the festival.