The feeling is that people are daring more today and not afraid of what is considered ‘different’ of its nature. There’s a real cult of originality, the desire to challenge the clichés, today in Pakistan entertainment industry. You do not really need an hour and a half of reel time to be able to tell beautiful, exclusive, dreamy stories. Short films is the new trend in this part of the world after Hollywood has embraced it successfully and swiftly.
Well, if you’re a social media savvy and follow Pakistan entertainment industry, there’s no way you don’t know about Speak your Heart with Samina Pirzada, an exposé show, where celebrities share their deepest thoughts, secrets and have a heart filled conversations with the veteran Pakistani actress, Samina Pirzada. It won’t be erroneous to say that Speak your Heart is one of the first few Pakistani shows to take YouTube as its platform instead of a mainstream channel and reach out to its audience such effortlessly. It has defined a niche. There are many talk shows in India and Hollywood for that matter that are only YouTube centric, but this one has targeted an untapped Pakistani market and set a bar for creativity, intelligence and content generation successfully. Fahd is the person behind this show as well. This guy is something. “Speak Your Heart with Samina Pirzada was pure luck. I was this crazy kid streaming my idea about a feature film with the now producer of the show Adnan Butt, and well Samina was there, and Rabia Asif, so just the four of us got connected and the rest is history. It was Samina’s vision, Adnan’s determination and Rabia’s determination that made the magic. And yeah my eccentric craziness.” recalls Fahd.
Where short films are now the happening trend in cinema. There is either a festival or a submission deadline for a festival practically every month of the year. Talking about the ‘it’ trend, he says, “Yes sadly, it’s the new ‘it’ thing. Everyone is after the new frontier of digital now. Scared I am that what will become of this but at the same time I am so happy that a lot of people who dreamed like me, will get a chance to prove themselves. Yes, short films are taking over Pakistan now, slowly and gradually. It’s human nature to tell stories and shorts happen to be a medium very easy for people. As true filmmakers, who actually have the urge to tell stories find it easy. In small budget they can share what they feel with the world. Hollywood is full of such surprises, shorts that turn into mega budget projects because of their content, like pixels, district 9, lights out and so on and so forth.”
Is it something one can relate to millennials? Fahd adds, “I don’t agree it’s something from Generation Y or Z, I believe it is there since the advent of mankind. Yup the content people are doing overseas is millennial but not here in Pakistan.”
Drama serial, film and a short film are three different mediums for a film-maker. Over to Fahd. “Well, dramas here in Pakistan are shot in a very strange manner, you have to do insane number of scenes in a day, it’s simply Master, CU or midshot, people don’t experiment and above all give time in executing scenes or even working with their actors. In Pakistan, especially we use the term, ‘this film is shot like a drama’ in a very condescending and derogatory term. So, shooting for a film or a short and drama is poles apart in this region. It’s like an architect who has to see every nook and corner of the building, the light design, space and aesthetics. And mind you I am not targeting people related to drama, the people are doing their job absolutely fine with all the circumstances and pressure they are facing,” he says.
Fahd’s new short film, Khirki is an intense journey highlighting the harsh realities of the society and stars Juggan Kazim and Omair Rana in the lead roles. Releasing today. We already have our hands on the popcorn, Do you?
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