KARACHI: It is not unusual to delay a film-related event by at least half an hour. After all, it involves stars and stardust. And they arrive fashionably late. But on Thursday evening the press meet for an upcoming film Mehrunisa V Lub U (MVLU) at a local hotel proved to be an event where neither the guests nor the hosts were in any hurry, because the programme included a pretty sumptuous Iftar-cum-dinner.

As per the format of the programme, three actors (two of them being the male and female lead), director, writer and producer of the film were requested to answer questions put to them by the anchor of the meet-the-press show, Madiha Imam. Actor Danish Taimoor was the first to respond to her queries. He said when he got to know that Yasir Nawaz was going to helm the story, he didn’t feel the need to read the script (which, he, of course, later did and liked). The script was worked on and the final draft turned out to be pretty good. Working with Nawaz was a learning experience, and, he hoped, the audience will also learn from him.

Actress Sana Javed, who plays the female protagonist, said it was a great experience for her as well. Every actor desires to act in the movies, so did she, but wanted to do a role that had “substance” in it, which the part in MVLU has. “I’m blessed that I have done my first film for a good banner,” she remarked.

Nida Yasir, one of the producers and wife of director of the film Yasir Nawaz, said she was the silent producer. The only thing she got involved in was the styling of the cast.

Nawaz said he has tried not to do the things that he did in his last film, Wrong No. as pointed out to him by some people. His entire team had worked hard on the project. He requested Pakistanis living anywhere in the world to see his film so that he gets encouraged to make more films. He claimed he has put his heart and soul into the venture (“main ne buhat dil se yeh film banai hai”).

Writer Saqib Sameer said it was Nawaz’s one-liner which he narrated to him and he expanded into a screenplay. “It was a dream-come-true situation for me.” He said it took a whole year for the project to come together. He urged the audience to see the movie at least once, and they will stop complaining about Pakistani cinema. One of the reasons that he gave for it was that only the set of the film cost two to three crore rupees.

Nina Kashif said the film will be released on Eid in Pakistan and the Middle East, and then in the rest of the world.

Actress Amna Ilyas talked about a song in MVLU that she features in. She said it was a difficult track to shoot because she worked barefoot in it.

Producer Hassan Zia thanked a bunch of people, including Indian lyricist Gulzar who penned the lyrics to the songs composed for the film.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2017