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“This film was not made in a way a film should ever be made,” is something Bilal Lashari often said during the course of this interview. We met right after he had returned from Thailand where he had been busy putting the finishing touches on his much-awaited debut film, Waar and getting it ready for the big screen. The director, who is better known for his elaborate and visually rich music videos, looked as if he hadn’t been exposed to sunlight in a very long time.
Sleep-deprivation is a constant state of being, explained the director, especially since he began working on this film. Tall, lean, calm and mostly dressed in black, Bilal Lashari comes across as a man of few words. But it has been three long, hard years since he began working on Waar and now that is has finally hit theatres this Eid, he opens up about the experience of making his first film — all the while sitting on top of the fire escape of a hotel with a breath-taking view of Lahore spread out in front of him.
“This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country.” — Clint Eastwood
Even before its release, certain sections of the foreign press had claimed that Waar was the most expensive film made in Pakistan’s history. “I don’t know if it’s the most expensive film”, said Bilal, “It’s definitely a very expensive film for Pakistan. Compared to international standards, it’s probably a very low-budget film.”
“Initially, this was going to be a smaller project. We got so into it that gradually it just started growing more and more. It became more time consuming; we started taking big actors on board etc. It did end up becoming more costly than we thought initially — close to about a million dollars.”
“On every film you suffer, but on some you really suffer.” — Martin Scorsese
“The way I approach anything that I do is usually with a ‘do or die’ kind of attitude. I cut myself off from the world. There is a lot of sacrifice involved especially with a film like this. Since it was my first film, I wanted it to be perfect. And one knows it’s never going to be perfect.”
“Fame should be left to the film stars.” — Alexander McQueen
The film boasts a star-studded cast. These include the likes of Shaan, Ali Azmat, Meesha Shafi, rising star Hamza Abbasi and the director’s own father, bureaucrat Kamran Lashari.
“Meesha’s amazing because she’s got a great look and for the character she worked really well,”
said Lashari about casting the singer/model/actress in his film. “I felt very comfortable working with her because she’s almost like family. Mahmood (her husband) is one of my best friends.”
This was also essentially her first film. “Maybe at the time it started!” laughed Lashari, “But by the time we were done with our last shoot she’d already done a couple of films!”
Lashari felt that directing Ali Azmat was very difficult for him, “Because I’m such a huge fan of the guy,” he explained, “And even after working, hanging out and knowing him, that hasn’t gone away. So that way it was very difficult to tell him what to do.”
“I mean”, said Lashari after a pause, “you don’t tell Ali Azmat what to do. It just doesn’t feel right!” he laughed.
“Besides these two, my dad’s in the film,” he added talking about Kamran Lashari, “He’s playing, sort of like the chief of internal security. That was also a little awkward. I was used to him directing me. And now I had to direct my dad.
“I didn’t have to do much and I am actually really impressed. His delivery, dialogues and timings were fresh.”
“There is another character called Ehteshaam”, added Lashari, “who is also one of the leads played by an Islamabad-based actor called Hamza Abbasi. He’s brilliant. He’s the next big thing.” Most people would know Abbasi as the fiery-tempered Pashtun cricket player from the film Main Hoon Shahid Afridi.
According to the director, Shaan was always going to be a part of the film. “It wasn’t a question of ‘Should we get him?’” he said, “It was more of ‘We need Shaan, we want Shaan.’”
“It was my first time shooting with Shaan. He has screen presence and he commands attention in a frame,”
he added recounting that for one of the scenes, Shaan had to give the expression of a man who had just witnessed losing everything that was dear to him. The crew assumed that Shaan would take his time getting into that mode. They were wrong.
“So he’s just lying on the floor and he’s like ‘Oh is the camera set?’” tells Lashari, “We said yes. He looked away. And then he just raised his face and he had that expression. Within two seconds. I was looking at the monitor and I was completely blown away.”
“Death comes in a flash, and that’s the truth of it, the person’s gone in less than 24 frames of film.” — Martin Scorsese
Did you have to kill any characters? “Yes, of course. A lot of people die in this movie. It’s an action film,” Lashari responded as if stating the obvious. “We ended up killing a few characters. Intentionally. There is one extra that I didn’t like. So we ended up adding a scene where the villain just kills him. I just wanted him dead!” he replied with a sinister smile.
“The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” — Paul McCartney
“This film was a crazy experience for me because I really got to learn about how insane rumours are!”
said the director. For someone used to making music videos, he didn’t know what he was in for, and because of the scale of the film and the number people involved, the rumour mill ran into overdrive.
“They’d say stuff like ‘We’ve heard production has shut down’ and I would say ‘No, that’s not true. I’m working my ass off, so it’s happening.’ They would say, ‘We have really reliable sources!’ and my response would be, ‘But I’m the director! It doesn’t get anymore reliable than this!’” he recalled.
“People want to believe the first thing they hear and they somehow want to make that true”, added Lashari thoughtfully.
“Film spectators are quiet vampires.” — Jim Morrison
“When the first trailer came out, I started getting hundreds of emails and messages. At first it was nice and encouraging. It was exactly what we were making this film for and we were getting a response multiplied by 50. We got 150,000 hits on the first day, it was crazy, and this is without any marketing.
“And then gradually the tone started changing and people started becoming aggressive and gave even mean, below-the-belt kind of comments. I was getting comments like ‘When is this film happening? What the hell is going on?’
“So we had to give them a second trailer. The first one had worked really well, so the second one had to be better. This time there was dialogue in it and visual effects that weren’t there in the first one. It was more like a proper theatrical trailer. And it did even better than the first one.
“The response from all over the world was overwhelming. But this time they started becoming aggressive even quicker.
A part of me was frustrated but another part was secretly enjoying it. I mean, would I rather not have people say: ‘You suck. Where the hell is our movie?’ rather than not get any messages at all?
“Usually it’s the other way around, you make it and wonder how you’re going to get people interested. But in this case we were like ‘Okay, just calm down! Let us finish this damn film!’ Now it’s done. It’s over. It’s out.”
