Director Asim Raza is meticulous to the core — and I speak from first-hand experience. Given exclusive access to the sets of his upcoming movie Paray Hut Love (PHL), I sat with him while he scrutinised a monitor linked directly to the recording cameras. It was a dusty, cold day in Karachi’s Commune Artist Colony and the entire crew wore face masks to ward away the grime suspended in the air. To no avail. Asim’s allergies had gotten aggravated and he coughed sporadically, in between takes but never during filming. That’s Asim Raza for you; when the camera is rolling, he’ll just swallow down his cough, no matter how terrible it is.
Gazing at the screen, he asked for a retake. “Saife’s head needs to tilt a bit more towards Sheheryar,” he had observed. Actor and director Saife Hassan was shooting with him on that particular day, starring in a cameo opposite the movie’s male lead and producer Sheheryar Munawar. Another retake was filmed when a fly flitted across the set.
A few days earlier, a wedding song had been shot where about 250 extras had formed the backdrop to the main cast. Every extra had been required to have a white flower in the hair, tilted at a certain precise angle — Asim had insisted upon it. “The theme had to be followed,” he told me matter-of-factly.
Behind the scenes at Asim Raza’s Paray Hut Love
This attention to detail is Asim’s forte and, as a result, the projects that he helms are always sure to be visual treats; bursting forth with colour, catchy music and famous faces. He’s a favourite within the corporate circle for his ad films and while his debut movie Ho Mann Jahaan (HMJ) may have garnered hit-and-miss reviews, there’s no denying that it was beautifully shot. One can expect similar visuals from PHL. The movie will be traversing the scenic locales of Turkey, Kashmir, Islamabad and some of Karachi’s oldest colonial buildings. The ensemble cast includes Sheheryar Munawar, Maya Ali, Ahmed Ali Butt, Zara Noor Abbas, Nadeem Baig, Hina Dilpazeer, Rachel Viccaji, Frieha Altaf and Parisheh James — and, together, this motley crew will be drifting through a story wound around four different weddings.
“Imran Aslam, who has written this movie’s script, and I used to often talk about the old classic romances in Hollywood and how this genre had largely remained untapped by local filmmakers,” recalls Asim. “We thought that local audiences would enjoy a romance that had substance to it and Imran decided to build the storyline around four different kinds of Pakistani weddings. After all, in our country, the party season is defined by weddings. It’s where young people mingle and dance and there is festivity and colour. This movie is fun, youthful and it is about coming of age. I think that my movies will probably always be about coming of age because I feel that I am perpetually coming of age!
“Unfortunately, the script remained incomplete for six, seven years. Both Imran and I got busy with other projects. Then, one fine day, Sheheryar came across the script and liked it so much that he persisted with Imran until finally, the script was completed,” he laughs. “The script and dialouges are all by Imran Aslam but his brother Nasir Aslam [also a filmmaker] has been instrumental in streamlining the script and finalising it.”
Sheheryar then decided to produce PHL with Asim as director and himself as the male lead. Quite a few male actors were miffed about this, vocally complaining that Asim needed to give others a chance rather than work with an actor who had already played a significant role in his last movie. Was Asim truly playing favourites or did Sheheryar insist on playing the hero because he was producing the movie?