Pakistan’s first superhero flick – Project Ghazi – finally saw its much awaited and delayed release in the last week of March. The film’s (un)fateful journey, however, ended with an expected (and a sad) debacle.

The film has raked around 1.5 crores which is even less than a low budget film like Laal Kabootar. It, undoubtedly, implies that megastars and big budgets never guarantee a film’s success. Instead, it all comes down to how well a film is made and how much emphasis is given to vital aspects such as the story, screenplay, direction, and editing.

While much has been written about what went wrong and what could have saved this potentially good film, we analyze what the failure of Project Ghazi could mean for its lead cast.

Humayun Saeed

Project Ghazi is only the third flop in the rather lustrous career of the Pakistani box office king – Humayun Saeed.

The actor who started his film journey with  Samina Peerzada’s blockbuster directorial Debut Inteha opposite Meera has only two other films on his résumé that were declared flop at the box office – namely No Paisa No problem and Khulay Aasman Ke Neechay. Whereas Javed Fazil’s Mein Ik Din Laut Ke Aaunga, which saw Indian TV stars in the lead, managed to be an average grosser.

Furthermore, albeit the multi-starer Yalgaar met mixed to negative reviews, it still managed to do a decent business. Post-revival, however, PG is the first flop in Saeed’s career. The film has registered the lowest numbers for a Humayun Saeed film since 2010, by a huge margin.

Project Ghazi‘s failure could hardly mean anything for a star like Humayun, who has not only has proved himself as an actor in films like Main Hoon Shahid Afridi, Punjab Nahi Jaungi, Jawani Phir Nahi Ani series, etc., he is also amongst the most successful producers of the nascent film industry. It is also important to keep it in mind that the masses hardly even knew of PG because it wasn’t promoted at bigger levels. The primary goal of PG’s makers was to ensure that the film gets a cinematic release and not the attention of masses, the lack of which translates to hardly any negative impact on Humayun’s image that he carries amongst the same.

Although 2019  may not see any other Humayun release, with films like Love You Jatta and Loafer in the making, the star definitely is going to be a (usual) success roll.

Sheheryar Munawar

Sheheryar Munawar could be dubbed as a smaller mirror image of Humayun as he, just like him, is both an actor and a producer and is pretty popular for his good looks and not so bad acting skills (something Humayun was known for, in the start of his career in the 90s).

Shehryar has earlier proved himself both as an actor and a producer with his debut Ho Mann Jahaan. Similarly, he did considerably well as an actor in 7 Din Mohabbat In but the film, too, was an average grosser on the box office. It could only earn 13 crores which honestly, is quite low for a film with a 10 crore budget and big names like Mahira Khan and Sheheryar himself. 

As for Project Ghazi, despite everything, he appeared to have prepared the most extensively for his role in the same. Unsurprisingly and ironically, he (alongside Syra Shahroz) is also the one, who got (the most) affected by the film’s delay and its subsequent failure.

There is no doubt about the talent Sheheryar possesses and his imminent bright future, however, with a flop like Project Ghazi and not much of a strong film record, the actor will definitely be required to deliver with his only release for 2019 – Parey Hut Love.

Will Shehryar manage to parey failure with his next is something only time will tell but we, at GL, do wish him a roaring success in future.

Syra Shahroz

In a small industry like ours, there is no dearth of artists who are underexposed and underrated; a) because of the meager quality work they are assigned and b) because of the lack of any sort of work at all. The curse is common in all smaller industries, across the globe. Just a few days ago, the Oscar-winner Spanish actor (No Country for Old Men), Javier Bardem, was reported to have found struggling to find work in Spain.

Syra Shehroz is just one of those artists. If she doesn’t face any difficulty in finding acting jobs, we are sure she definitely has difficulty in finding a good team that ensures success on screens. She has a beautiful face, can act and dance but has yet to hit the success and acclaim at a mass level, on the film front.

She was appreciated for her acting in both of her films Chalay Thay Saath and Project Ghazi but unfortunately, the failure of both films doesn’t present a good sign for the actor, at least in cinema.

The only film project that she now appears to have in the pipeline is a romcom opposite hubby Shehroz Sabzwari. Not much people know when the film is going to come out. We,  however, do wish that Syra sees the success she deserved with her third film because not a lot of people are as lucky as Uncle Javed Sheikh who was continued to be cast as a hero in many films despite seeing back to back flops in the start of his career in the 80s.

For now, we can only wish her all the success on the cinematic front and hope for the best.