It has taken five months of wait for Pakistan to release its first film of the year 2014. Things are pretty much now in place, the season seems to be starting, and the first Pakistani film to release this year has been confirmed to be Shahzad Ghufoor’s directorial debut; action-drama flick, The System.
Starring a cast heavily blended with experience and the fresh faces, the film has Shahraz Ghufoor and Kashaf Ali as male and female lead, respectively, and for other significant part of the cast, Nadeem Baig, Irfan Khosat, Shafqat Cheema, Nayyar Ejaz, Rabia Tabassum and Maryam Ali Hussain will be seen in action.
Releasing on 30th of May this year, just after two more days, The System aims to set the tone for the year with what its director calls the, “biggest release of our recent times.”
Galaxy Lollywood, for our readers, recently conducted an interview with Shahzad Ghufoor, where he talked about how his film is going to be as grand of a release as he claims it to be, and a lot more, of course.
Read the interview here and know all of it for yourself:
Q: Honestly speaking, when The System was first announced, it seemed too big of a dream to us here at Galaxy Lollywood. I mean imported technology, exotic locations, mass scale and most importantly an experimenting cast. Kudos to you on pulling it all off so well. How big a dream it was to you before you took on the project?
Thanks for commenting so high about our project. Yes it was a dream to make a movie which was to be shot in multiple locations both in Pakistan and Norway. The script allowed us to shoot few songs and small scenes in Norway. I also had decided that whenever I would shoot something in Pakistan, I will definitely have our landmark BADSHAHI MASJID there… Now all that is done by the grace of God.
Q: Pakistan hasn’t really got a specific format of filmmaking yet. At one end of the line we have got this slick-looking west inspired film named Waar, while on the other hand we have got the Masala-laden, item number, dance, music and hero centred Main Hoon Shahid Afridi which seems to have its inspiration taken from the eastern side of our borders. Where would you hold your film amongst both these extremes?
Earnestly the inspiration is solely taken from our traditional Pakistani and Indian cinema, the basic Sub-continental film industry, which has existed for a long time and was in fact a big one before the partition took place. I wanted to give it new technology and a different style of storytelling, some innovation, something new. Normally our films would lack that, so that’s what we have tried to add as our contribution. It would be I guess for the people to decide where to put this movie.
Q: Tell us a little about this young-experience blend of the cast you have got in the film. Also, is this film particularly made to launch Sheraz Ghufoor—who is also your brother, on Pakistan’s gradually resurrecting film scene, or you would say he just luckily happened to be there at the right time with just the skills you needed for the lead role of your debut venture?
Shehraz has worked very very hard for this movie; he would work-out 8-9 times a week, doing martial arts, working on his Urdu accent. He is very talented, and I am sure people will love him after this movie. We also wanted to choose a new face for the role of female lead and item song. Both talented girls!
Q: We earlier talked about the grand scale of your film. Take us briefly through that aspect of the film. How grand is actually your film? Shed a little light on the budget of your film as well.
The budget for the movies has gradually increased, especially because of post production and shootings abroad. The budget for only shootings stands around 7 crore now, + marketing and prints, all in all touching around 8-9 crore.
Q: Right from the start we noticed that your priority has been new faces and new identities. We saw that in cast, in locations you selected for your film, and now your distributors. Why Channel One, why not ARY or Geo Films? Are you trying to make some kind of a point here?
We have made the movie with our own resources and sources, without any official funding or sponsors. We even wanted to release the film individually, on our own, but at the end TV1 gave us a good offer, and we decided to have them with us.
Q: Tell us, why a person should come and watch your movie. What is your film’s Unique Selling Point (USP) here? What are you selling?
Hehe, I am selling a movie of its own kind first of all, I am selling the revival of Pakistani cinema. We all must watch the journey of this revival, we hope we can be a brick in this journey and provide something fruitful to the industry. The film has good entertainment, beautiful songs, and most significant of all, an important message to all Pakistanis.
Q: Unlike many other films, if there is one thing you should be credited and commended for, it is the timely completion of your film, and now a well-timed release too. How did you manage it all despite it being your debut film, despite the lack of proper filmmaking infrastructure in Pakistan, despite the whole scale and everything? How did you really pull it off so well? And for the readers, kindly specify the final release date of the film. Please also tell us the scale on which it will be releasing in Pakistan, in how many cities, at how many screens?
Yes it’s been very hard journey, something that took away countless of our days and nights. Then a lot of travelling as I live in Norway. We had basically planned to shoot the film in one spell, post production and launch, Allah has helped us out somehow on the way.. Now release is the only bit of it left. About the scale of its release, this is the biggest release of our recent times, will be screened in around 60 cinemas.
As for the local release date, we are releasing it on 30th of May this year, moreover, let me also announce here that it will release overseas on 13th of June.
Q: Your final comments for the readers here.
We have done our part, and now it is your turn to come to cinemas on 30th of May and support our film and effort. And not only ours, support all other upcoming Pakistani movies. Prove that we like our own products as well.
