With the rise of Netflix and the lack of films in the year 2020, trends show entertainment buffs leaning towards online episodic series that one can either take their time and savour each episode for what is or binge-watch the entire series because, why not?
Pakistan is no stranger to locally produced web-series anymore. With Churails and Ek Jhoothi Love Story having made their way to Indian portal Zee5, and a few branded local web series, we are back with another homegrown web-series produced by the superstar Mahira Khan. Yes, you read that right! Mahira Khan is all set to reinvent her career as a producer and has announced her very first project:a web-series ‘Baarwan Khiladi‘.
Ever since Mahira Khan’s appearance on HUM Televisions 16-year celebration show and all the hints she had been dropping of coming back to television, her fans have been eager to know what all the superstar has up her sleeve for the year 2021. And finally, everyone gets clarity today on what the actress has in store for us. Mahira took to her Instagram account and posted about her new production house ‘Soulfry Films’.
Following her announcement of growing her career and venturing out into production, she finally disclosed the name, idea, and poster of her first project ‘Baarwan Khiladi’.
Mahira’s debut production
Baarwan Khiladi is centered around Pakistan’s most celebrated sports, Cricket. Mahira announces that her upcoming web-series production is “A coming of age story set against the backdrop of the OG of all games – Cricket. A story about friendships, relationships, unity, failure, success, love, and courage. A small peak into a labour of love and hard work.. from all of us to all of you”.
After learning about the background of this series, it’s no surprise the cast might just include megastar cricketer Shoaib Malik. Who better to compliment the story than an acclaimed cricketer himself? Rumour has it that celebrated actor Fawad Khan will also have a cameo role in this new production. We still need more confirmation on this front. But if this is true, Baarwan Khiladi is surely one series to look forward to.
The cast
Once we clicked on Mahira Khan’s Instagram announcement, we went stalking all the tags and discovered the possible cast of the series. First up is the Canadian-Pakistani Youtuber Shahveer Jafry who is largely known for his comical vlogs and unique expression of “brown people” traits and traditions. Baarwan Khiladi will mark Shahveer’s debut as an actor and his fans are already going gaga over the news.
Another recent addition to the acting fraternity, Kinza Hashmi, will be seen in this highly anticipated new web-series. Kinza began her acting career six years ago and received a nomination for Best Negative Actor at the Hum Awards. However, her role in the new web-series is still unknown to us but gauging by her past performances, we look forward to what she brings to this project.
Ali Zafar’s younger brother is also part of the fresh cast of ‘Baarwan Khiladi‘. Danyal Zafar will be seen in his second acting project for the year 2021, his debut being a Ramzan special play on HUM TV. However, it’s soon to say which project we’ll be seeing him in first. In either case, this young talent is surely making a strong foundation in his promising acting career.
Joining the emerging actors are Khaqan Shahnawaz, Meer Yousuf, Zarar Khan, and Hina Ashfaq along with Pakistan’s celebrated actors Sarmad Khoosat and Mira Sethi.
What to expect
It’s established that Mahira Khan is a phenomenal actress and has won over so many hearts with her talent not just in Pakistan but across the border as well. With such a force in the driver’s seat, Baarwan Khiladi has really built up everyone’s expectations of the said web-series. The series is a Tapmad original; Tapmad is a local video streaming platform. We are still unsure of when the series will premiere. Stay tuned to Galaxy Lollywood for further updates.
