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Updated 06 Nov, 2014 11:20am

Shamoon Abbasi: 'Gidh' will be a musically driven movie

Hailing from a family of media personalities, Shamoon Abbasi is not one to be intimidated by anything that comes his way. Born to the famous drama writer the late Zubair Abbasi in Italy, this hero has become the nation's favourite anti-hero ever since he appeared in his career defining roles in Bilal Lashari's Waar and the recently released Jami's Operation 021.

With the majority of his roles being negative ones, you'd assume the actor would be bothered by being branded a "villian" but that's far from it: "I am known as a versatile actor. I have done positive roles, along with comedy [on television] but when it comes to the cinema screen, I am being labelled as one of the best negative role-players which does not bother me. It plays out well, no?," says the 41-year old actor laughing.

Jumping from one project to another seems to be his forte so it's surprising to learn that his upcoming movie, Gidh has been in the pipeline for over two years now. One of the reasons for that is that Humayun Saeed, who was cast as the lead initially, delayed the production and was later replaced by Shaan Shahid.

"Humayun got busy with Mein Hoon Shahid Afridi and left Gidh's production lingering with a lot of investment done on it. Hence we had to replace him with Shaan. It worked out for the best as we believe that Shaan has a bigger cinema name than him."

Shamoon and Shaan were previously seen in Waar and the pairing was praised by audiences. Feeling confident about his project, Shamoon said: "Shaan and I were complimented immensely for our work [in Waar] and I think it's about time we come back with another super hit to keep the stance."

Read: 'Gidh': Another Shaan, Shamoon Abbasi film coming up

Gidh, which will be Abbasi's directorial debut also stars Mumbai-based actress Sara Loren, Hamza Ali Abbasi and Ayesha Khan among others.

Giving us more insight about the much awaited movie, Abbasi shares: "Gidh is a romantic thriller and its plot is not based on the premise of terrorism, history or politics. It's a movie about show-business and the media. What makes Gidh unique is that it has six songs and will be a musically driven movie, unlike the movies we have been seeing in the recent past; they lacked the musical drive which I feel is very essential for our viewers."

The movie's soundtrack will include songs by the legendary Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Azmat, Saaji, KamranAkhtar and "a few new names that will be introduced in movies for the first time".

With so many Pakistani actors working across the border, we couldn't help but wonder if we'll be seeing Shamoon in B-town anytime soon. The Bhai Log actor answered: "I'm open to the world cinema, be it Hollywood or Bollywood or even Arabic cinema. I will not limit my talents to just one industry because an actor is a freelancer of sorts and is not bound in terms of performance."

So what's next for the multi-faceted actor and director?

"Well we're working on two more projects. One is going to be from the horror genre and the other is a fun, comedy film, again with a lot of emphasis on music, much like Gidh. Soon after Gidh is released, we will launch those songs on 8xm and other various channels."

Gidh is slated for release in the second quarter of 2015.

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