KARACHI: It has become almost clichéd and useless to say that so and so trailer launch or film premiere started an hour late. Nowadays, that seems to be the trend among showbiz glitterati. They never arrive on time, and it also happened on Saturday evening at the launch of a trailer for the film Parchi, directed by Azfar Jafri, which releases on Jan 5, 2018.

The good thing, however, was that the red carpet pleasantries did not last for long and everyone went straight into the cinema hall where they were greeted by the booming voice of one of the actors and DoP of the film Usman Mukhtar, who hosted the event. Someone should have told him, though, that when you scream into the microphone you need to keep your mouth a little away from it; he seemed to be the most excited member of the film crew.

First, the teaser of the film was shown after which the trailer was screened. The media and friends of the makers of Parchi liked it.

Answering the (trite) question about her experience working in the movie, the principal actress and one of its producers, Hareem Farooq, said: “It was a great experience. We put our heart and soul into it. We have a lot of new actors [in the film]. We believe in giving talent a platform. I hope the way we love the film you will also love it the same way.”

Actor Ali Rehman Khan replying to the question that why does he do less films said: “I’m involved in one project. I give my time to one project and once I’m done with one project I move on to the other.” He added, for the role he had to “bulk up”.

Actor Shafqat Khan, who has also written the film, first spoke a few words in Pashto which sounded nice. When the host said he didn’t understand the language, he switched to Urdu. “The film’s producer Imran Kazmi met me. He wanted me to write a movie. Then we sat down together and wrote it. Everyone is involved in the film, everyone has contributed to it.”

Actress Mah-i-Mir Haider Khan said: “I’m playing the character of a girl named Natasha in the film.”

Actor Talal Jilani said he had a dream of working with Mr Kazmi, to which Usman Mukhtar quipped. “What about Hareem?’ And Jilani responded: “Har­eem and Kazmi.”

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2017