Tête-à-tête: Eye of the tiger

Published August 9, 2015
"I bruised a few ribs but it was all worth it," says Adnan Sarwar, who plays Shah
"I bruised a few ribs but it was all worth it," says Adnan Sarwar, who plays Shah

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” This quote about battling it out in the ring and battling it out survive outside of it is attributed to one of the greatest heavyweights in the world, American boxer Mohammad Ali.

We’ve seen it many times in sports films. The talented, starving underdog is picked up by a mentor and goes through the grind eventually emerging victorious. The boxer’s victory in the ring is symbolic of his/her victory over their previously desperate circumstances in life. Or a defeated champion finding the courage to get up and train for the final fight of his life — which he wins of course.


“I had to lose 10kg of muscle and fat which was the toughest thing to do. I wasn’t allowed to eat much and I was hungry all the time. That helped me connect further with the character though because that’s the kind of life Hussain Shah lived.”


There is a reason why these stories resonate with us: it’s because they’re true. A trailer for a new Pakistani film did the rounds on social media recently.

It’s not your regular run-of-the-mill rom-com or terrorist-fighting action film, it’s biopic based on the life of former Pakistani Olympian and boxer Syed Hussain Shah. This boxing story of triumph over desperation is one of our own. Set in the back alleys and boxing studios of Lyari in Karachi, Shah aims to depict exactly what it takes for a starving kid on the streets to become a national sporting champion in Pakistan.

Musician-turned-director Adnan Sarwar of Club Caramel stars in the film as Shah. The fight scenes look gritty. All of the locations are local and the cinematography is beautiful.

It’s the thrill of the fight

“One of my earliest memories as a child is of trying to stay awake at night to watch Hussain Shah’s boxing matches from the Seoul Olympics (1988),” relates Adnan. “He was one of my earliest heroes. The fact that he was forgotten by the Pakistani public and the media was something that always stayed with me.” Around three years ago in 2012, while he was working on another film, he got an opportunity to direct and act in another project. Adnan had firmly decided that it was Hussain Shah’s story he wanted to tell and managed to convince the producers to shift their focus towards the boxing champion.


As an independent production with a limited budget, they couldn’t afford to cast well-established ‘big name’ actors in the film. That may have worked in their favour as the cast ended up being from Lyari itself lending more authenticity to the film


That was the ‘easy’ part. Finding Hussain Shah, on the other hand, was going to prove to be a challenge.

Just a man and his will to survive

“It took us three months to find him,” related Adnan. Where was he? For that, I was told; we need to wait for the film. “Once we did, it was just a matter of turning on the recorder and asking him to tell his story,” continued the director, “Needless to say Hussain Shah’s story is both tragic and inspiring at the same time.”

Adnan penned the screenplay himself in 2012. “A lot of the dialogue in the film is taken directly from these interviews,” said Adnan adding that, “The screenplay was cleared by him to ensure that we stayed away from his personal life and kept the focus on his journey as a boxer. After that I’d hold sessions with him to understand his mannerisms, body language and overall personality.”


“The boxers were allowed to hit me, but not knock me out, because we couldn’t afford delays in filming schedules. It would take me a few days after every fight to recover from my injuries. I even bruised a few ribs but it was all worth it.” — Adnan Sarwar


As an independent production with a limited budget, they couldn’t afford to cast well-established ‘big name’ actors in the film. That may have worked in their favour as the cast ended up being from Lyari itself lending more authenticity to the film.

Risin’ up to the challenge

The question remains, how does Adnan, as a musician-turned-actor, even prepare for a physically demanding role as a boxer?

The first step, according to him, was to achieve the emancipated ‘homeless athlete’ look. “Hussain Shah was one of the skinniest boxers in the international circuit,” said Adnan, “I had to lose 10kg of muscle and fat which was the toughest thing to do. I wasn’t allowed to eat much and I was hungry all the time. That helped me connect further with the character though because that’s the kind of life Hussain Shah lived.”

“My training consisted of boxing drills, running and some resistance training. Due to my background in sports, boxing came naturally to me. The tricky part was learning to box in Hussain Shah’s signature style.”

Was he interested in boxing before this? “I actually have no interest in combat sports of any kind,” confessed Adnan, “My area of interest is in motorsport which I have been pursuing for the past 10 years.”

Other than as a boxer, what other characteristics of Hussain Shah did Adnan feel he needed to embody? It turns out that once the gloves are off, the boxer becomes a very different person when compared to his professional persona.

“He’s a very gentle and easy-going person in real life,” related Adnan, “But that transition from a regular, soft-spoken guy into a fighter with a killer instinct once inside the ring was the most important part of his persona for me.”

“I have been consumed by this project for the past three years of my life.”

Shot mostly in Karachi and Lahore, the actual filming took eight months whereas the preparation and research prior to that took a good two years. “The total cost of the film is Rs1.7 crore with 100 per cent of the funding underwritten by our corporate brand partners,” said the director, “The budget was tiny compared to the story we were attempting to tell but we believe that the people of Pakistan will be sympathetic towards our budgetary constraints.

“Our project is about bringing Hussain Shah’s story to the fore and not flaunting a massive production. For a group of unknowns and first-time filmmakers, this is something we’re incredibly proud of.”

The team itself is quite small itself and consisted of only seven people, who, in the words of the director, “worked together as a unit.” The art direction, wardrobe and publicity design is by Sonya Ejaz. The stunning cinematography is by Omar Daraz and Hassan Zaidi — the latter is currently studying film at the National College of Arts. Production management was by Farhan Ali, make-up by Madiha Qaiser and the editing and post-production by Tahir Ali.

Finally, the director revealed that not all of the people cast in the film are actors.

“There is no ‘faking’ it,” he added, “The boxers were sourced from Lyari boxing clubs and are all national level competitors."

“The boxers were allowed to hit me, but not knock me out, because we couldn’t afford delays in filming schedules. It would take me a few days after every fight to recover from my injuries. I even bruised a few ribs but it was all worth it.

“My boxing coach now wants me to continue boxing and enter competitions because he thinks I would do good,” laughed Adnan. “But I’m happy to put boxing behind me.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 9th, 2015

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