KARACHI: Two years in the making, Bin Roye will be finally running in cinemas across the country and globally, announced the Hum Films team on Monday at a press conference at a hotel.

Having recently returned from Bollywood after a shooting stint in the movie Raees playing a leading role alongside superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Mahira Khan, who is playing the leading role in Bin Roye alongside Humayun Saeed, was all praise for the commitment and professionalism of the Bin Roye team which she said was comparable to Bollywood’s film production. “The only difference that I found was that their film production teams are much larger than ours and that is simply because they have a bigger film industry,” added Mahira who began her film career with the Shoaib Mansoor directed film Bol.

She was quite forthcoming about the problems during the making of the film. “There were many obstacles during the making of the movie. The director left midway. We shot in a house that was haunted. But then Momina Duraid, the producer of the film, came in as co-director and pulled the film together. She was there working longer hours and was always on her feet. When you see the producer is there on the set longer than you then you want to be there also. We have put our blood, sweat and tears.”

“We were advised to insert an item song or some other elements. But I am glad that what wasn’t required was not added. But this film has everything: so much drama, rona-dhona, shadi and birth of a child!” said the actress laughingly.

The movie is based on a novel written by Farhat Ishtiaq of drama Humsafar fame. Produced and directed by Momina Duraid and Shehzad Kashmiri, the plot of the film is about love, suspense and family relations revolving around three characters played by Humayun Saeed, Mahira Khan and Armeena Rana Khan. The cast also includes bigwigs such as Javed Sheikh, Zeba Bakhtiar, Junaid Khan of Call music band and Adeel Hussain. The look of the film has been designed by Feeha Jamshed of Tee Jays and lyrics have been penned by Sabir Zafar. Two songs have been directed by ace ad film-maker Asim Raza and Humsafar director Sarmad Sultan Khoosat.

Earlier, Humayun Saeed said that he was heartened by the fact that the likes of Momina Duraid and Sultana Siddiqui had ventured into film-making since their forte is dramas reflected in their TV productions. “Drama is our strength and I hope other Hum Films production will carry on with this genre. Bin Roye is a family-oriented film with good songs. It does not have a separate item song so Hamza Ali Abbasi does not have to update his [Facebook] status!” he quipped, referencing Hamza’s Facebook status updates especially about item songs in Pakistani films and his interview to BBC Urdu in which he spoke vehemently against item numbers.

Humayun, who was last seen in Main Hoon Shahid Afridi, also commended the diligence of the Hum Films team. “Film-making is so difficult. I know this because I have made one movie and one thinks that it is not something to be tackled again. The team worked extremely hard on the film so much so that they took a dilapidated house and turned into a tastefully-decorated beautiful home. They imported special lights thanks to which I am looking so good in the movie.”

When Shehzad Kashmiri, the co-director of Bin Roye, was asked to speak he seemed overwhelmed and all he could utter was: “It was a beautiful experience and it didn’t feel like I was directing my first movie.” However, the ever loquacious Mahira Khan interjected and narrated an anecdote about Shehzad that gave an insight into the passion of young auteur. “In Santa Barbara I was to give a shoot during the magic hour. All I had to was stand and wait for it for God knows how long. And when finally the magic hour happened, I did the shot as I was directed to, and then I saw Shehzad give a hug to an invisible man and then giving him flying kisses. Turns out he was thanking the Almighty for the magic hour.”

Momina Duraid, on the other hand, seemed composed and graciously thanked everyone in the team including the ones who couldn’t make it to the press conference such as Farhat Ishtiaq, Armeena Rana Khan and Zeba Bakhtiar. She then called everyone who was associated with the film to come on stage and receive applause for their dedication and hard work. About the haunted house, she said: “We were shooting in this house and apparently a sweeper got slapped by a jinn. Everyone came to know and were perhaps expecting the shooting spell to get cancelled. But I said ‘since the jinn has not done anything to me, the shoot will go on.’”

Javed Shaikh spoke about the Zindagi channel in India showing Pakistani dramas and their popularity with Indian audiences. “People there are crazy about our dramas.” During the question and answer session, he was asked to compare his roles in films Halla Gulla and Wrong Number with Bin Roye, coincidentally all of them scheduled to be released on Eid. “Halla Gulla is a comedy movie in which I play the role of a don, in Wrong Number I am a butcher and in Bin Roye I play the role of Mahira Khan's father.”

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2015

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