Blood. Gore. Mindless corpses marching to the beat of a single carnal instinct. On the eve of the Eid of sacrifice, mind you. Nabeel Qureshi and Fizza Ali Meerza’s Zombeid may not be your typical Eid movie with dhol dhamaka and shaadi songs, but it still keeps the festive occasion in mind.

The trailer delivers plenty of gruesome details. The lead actors, Fahad Mustafa and Mehwish Hayat, run, jump and navigate a zombie-infested landscape. Blood is smeared all over their faces. Fahad flexes his muscles and throws punches.

Mehwish looks gorgeous, even as she grits her teeth and fends off a snarling zombie that had pinned her down. They are scared but not scared enough to let zombies take over. “Kal Eid hai [It’s Eid tomorrow],” Fahad’s voice reminds them. This brave pair is going to save the world from a zombie outbreak so that they can celebrate in peace.

With Zombeid, Filmwala Pictures — Nabeel and Fizza — are pushing boundaries with a subject that is extremely unconventional for Pakistan’s cinema landscape. While most filmmakers lean towards commercially viable, ‘safe’ boy-meets-girl storylines, Zombeid features cloudy-eyed men and women tearing away at human flesh. For the faint of heart, the trailer itself is hard to stomach — as it should be.

If you thought you had seen enough blood and gore over Eidul Azha, imagine what happens when the Eid of Sacrifice meets the undead! Fizza Ali Meerza and Nabeel Qureshi’s Zombeid blends horror, romance and action in an ambitious cinematic gamble as Pakistani cinema steps into a new genre…

Making the film required extensive effort and expenditures. While there may not be many state-of-the-art special effects facilities in Pakistan for filmmakers, the country’s audiences they cater to are well-versed in the macabre — they have seen enough Hollywood horror movies to expect thrills of a similar calibre from a local movie. Nabeel and Fizza, having taken on this zombie behemoth, also had to ensure their narrative was equally compelling and believable.

BLOOD, SWEAT AND ROOH AFZA

“Every film is a risk,” says Fizza, “but we have never stuck to a formula and enjoy trying out different genres. With Zombeid, we felt that it was high time we changed the canvas.

“Yes, it did require a massive budget and extensive pre-production. There were trials and rehearsals. Fifty actors played the main zombies, and many more walked behind them. We would be shooting for hours, with actors hanging from strings, doing stunts. In particular, Fahad and Mehwish were on set all day with Rooh Afza smeared on their faces all day long.”

This prompts me to interrupt her. “Rooh Afza?”

“Yes,” Fizza replies in a matter-of-fact manner. “That’s what we use, mixed with colour, as fake blood. It looks authentic, and it’s safe to use on actors’ faces because it won’t pose a problem if they swallow it. But it’s also tough on the actors, with flies flitting towards their faces and the syrup drying up like cracked candy. Fahad and Mehwish believed in the story just as much as we did.”

Fahad and Mehwish, of course, are popular staples in Filmwala’s trajectory, having worked with them in the past in movies such as Load Wedding and Actor In Law — and let’s not forget Mehwish’s sizzling ‘guest appearance’ in the song ‘Billi’ in Na Maloom Afraad.

“Fahad is a brilliant actor. He’s a superstar,” says Fizza. “We are constantly sharing stories with him, even when we are not working together. We are on the same team.”

She continues, “It had been seven or eight years since we had last worked with Mehwish, and had been wanting to do so again for a while. She was in the US when I called her and said, ‘Let’s work together.’ She had such faith in us that she just asked me what we would like her to work on.

“And then, once she had agreed to work in Zombeid, she started working out while still abroad, in preparation for the role. She is incredibly dedicated, and we have always enjoyed working with her. Both Fahad and Mehwish worked much harder than we had expected.”

THE ‘ZOMBEID’ DUO

When I meet these two hard-working actors, I pose a generic question: do they think that Zombeid, with its out-of-the-box storyline, is a brave choice for a movie?

Fahad turns the question around, “Who is calling it brave?”

“Us — everyone who has seen the trailer,” I answer.

He fires back, “You’re all too cowardly to see that it’s simply a fresh genre. When you make a film, you don’t stick to a commercial formula. You just want to share a story that excites you, hoping the audience feels that spark too.”

I turn to Mehwish. Do you also not think that it’s a brave step to make a movie on this particular topic?

“For me, it is a calculated risk,” she responds. “It is a genre that has never been attempted before, and the good thing is that the film is being made by Nabeel and Fizza. I know how committed they are to doing things right and maintaining quality control. So, I just took the plunge.”

“Yes, we took the plunge and have been hanging ever since,” chimes in Fahad.

The word ‘hanging’ fits perfectly here, since Zombeid’s action sequences involved both actors running, jumping and hanging from strings. “I would be hanging from the ceiling and they would all forget that I was up there!” laughs Mehwish. “Of course, we knew that the movie would require us to do stunts, be part of action sequences and inadvertently get hurt.”

“I fractured my toe,” says Fahad. “I had to do flying kicks, but there were multiple takes. By the 15th one, the kick wasn’t flying quite as high as it should have, and it accidentally hit an iron table, fracturing my toe. I shot the remaining action sequences with my toe in plaster. On Nabeel’s set, there’s no such thing as a pack-up just because you’re unwell!”

Evidently, this isn’t something he minds.

Mehwish adds, “I remember arriving on set immediately after returning from the US, where I had gone to do some work for a few days. The jetlag kicked in, and I felt completely dead…”

“Like a zombie!” Fahad interjects.

“Yes, just like a zombie,” Mehwish laughs. “Fizza immediately called in a doctor and I got intravenous medication. After that, I had to get back to work.”

“They revive you and tell you to get to work again,” laughs Fahad, moving on to yet another story from the set: “The head zombie is played by Dodi Khan, who is very broad, both in terms of his physique and his confidence. There was a scene where we had to pass through tempered glass and, even though I am comfortable with most stunts, I instinctively told Nabeel I wouldn’t be doing the scene.

“My body double stepped in while Dodi declared that he didn’t feel pain. He would pass through the glass and little shards would get stuck in his body. And because it took several takes to finalise the scene, the glass would be picked off his body before he re-did the scene. We literally had to give our blood for this movie!”

How many days did it take to wrap up the movie’s shoot?

“Days? Weeks? Months? We lost track of time!” declares Fahad.

“We shot for 33 to 35 days, and worked double shifts. So it was basically 66 days’ work, wrapped up in 33 days,” says Mehwish.

ROMANCE DESPITE ZOMBIES

There’s also romance in the movie, probably before the zombie outbreak, as the hero and heroine race about with Rooh Afza — oops! — blood smeared across their faces. Did they enjoy the romance more or the action?

“The romance,” says Fahad.

Really? I ask. Not combatting with a crazed horde of the undead?

“It is only if the hero is romantic and in love with the heroine that he will fight with zombies and save her,” he reasons.

Won’t the heroine be doing some fighting of her own? Mehwish doesn’t look like a damsel in distress in the movie’s trailer.

“Oh yes. She hit people, fought zombies, sometimes we had to tell her to stop!” quips Fahad.

How many people were there in the scenes? “About 100,” he estimates.

Mehwish adds, “And then there was the external team. The set looked like a huge, real, lived-in space that Fizza had set up, and it didn’t look make-believe at all.”

BEHIND THE CAMERA: BUILDING ZOMBEID

When I connect with director Nabeel — who has also co-written the story with Fizza — he recalls the challenges involved in making the movie.

“Shooting involved intense physical performances, complicated prosthetics and long, late-night shoots,” he explains. “Some sequences required months of planning because we wanted them to feel cinematic and immersive, rather than gimmicky.”

He continues: “A lot of the film depends on atmosphere, make-up effects, stunt choreography, VFX, sound design, production design and crowd coordination, so every department had to work together very closely. Creating a believable zombie world while still keeping the emotion, action, humour and scale grounded was extremely difficult.

“Without a doubt, this has been one of the most challenging films of my career — technically, physically and emotionally — basically, on every level.”

It all sounds exciting — but does Nabeel agree that it isn’t your quintessential Eid movie?

“Even when we made films such as Na Maloom Afraad and Actor In Law, they were considered unconventional in their own way — but audiences always respond to honest and fresh storytelling. From my own perspective, I honestly haven’t watched a huge number of horror films, but the zombie genre has always excited me. It is not just about horror. It’s also about how people react in extreme situations. Fear, survival, panic, sacrifice, relationships, humanity — all of it becomes very intense in a zombie world.”

He adds that, although the zombie genre may seem unconventional for Pakistani cinema — there is no equivalent of the zombie in our cultural folklore after all — Zombeid goes beyond conventional horror. He describes it as an “action-adventure survival entertainer” infused with emotion, humour, romance and spectacle. Nabeel feels Eid releases should offer audiences a memorable cinematic experience — something the team aimed to achieve with the film.

Fizza wraps up our chat with a laugh, with a note of pride and amusement.

“You know, I find it strange that when people want to compliment a movie’s trailer, they often say, ‘It doesn’t look like a Pakistani film’, although I understand what they are trying to say.

“This time, we were told, ‘It looks like a Hollywood film!’ I am glad that we weren’t compared to Bollywood! But Zombeid is, nonetheless, a film that is proudly Pakistani.”

The writer is a fashion and entertainment journalist with over two decades of experience. She can be reached at maliharehman1@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 31st, 2026