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Having launched the trailer, the first song from the film has been unveiled. Titled ‘Behka Re’, it’s a melodious track that has been shot in gorgeous places across Turkey.With clean cinematography by Salman Razzak and powerful visuals, the video features Humayun Saeed with Kubra Khan and Fahad Mustafa with Mawra Hocane.In the music video, Humayun and Kubra can be seen roaming on the streets of Istanbul casually while Mawra and Fahad look good together dancing to the upbeat tune on a yacht.With lyrics penned by Shakeel Sohail, the words echo the sentiment of romance and love. The music is composed by Shiraz Uppal, who has also lent his vocals to the track. Directed by Nadeem Baig, Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2 has an ensemble cast; Humayun Saeed, Sarwat Gilani, Uzma Khan, Vasay Chaudhry and Ahmed Ali Butt are reprising their roles while new additions include Fahad Mustafa (in a never-seen-before avatar), Mawra Hocane, Kubra Khan and veteran actor Sohail Ahmed.Furthermore, Fawad Khan as well as...

After almost eleven months of announcing her move to Netflix, Shonda Rhimes has unveiled the first slate of series that she has put in development at the streaming giant via her Shondaland banner.“The slate runs the gamut from dramas to comedy (Sunshine Scout) to documentary (Hot Chocolate Nutcracker), from contemporary U.S. to 1840 Mexican-ruled state of California (Pico & Sepulveda) to 1813 London (Bridgerton), with most scripted projects based on source material. That is a departure from Shondaland’s portfolio at ABC, which has consisted primarily of original concepts, including the company’s top series, Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, both created by Rhimes – and How To Get Away with Murder,” reported Deadline.In an interview, Rhimes said, “I wanted the new Shondaland to be a place where we expand the types of stories we tell, where my fellow talented creatives could thrive and make their best work and where we as a team come to the office each day filled with excitement.” She adde...

As social media continues to be a major influencer in all fields of work, including the entertainment industry, far too often things circulate with the speed of light. It can result in backlash and criticism for those involved. The recent target in this regard is actor Saba Qamar, whose recent photo shoot was leaked online and didn’t go down well with those who saw it. This resulted in harsh remarks for the actor who tends to not pay heed to such reactions.However, some of her friends and colleagues in the industry recently came to her defense via their social media posts.Adnan Siddiqui, who starred with Saba in popular TV serial Maat, took to social media and shared that he is very upset with how people are treating this whole issue. He wrote: “Came through what’s being called BTS images of my colleague and friend Saba Qamar’s recently done photoshoot which is spreading on social media like wildfire, I’m deeply saddened by this act, this is not us and we shouldn’t take pride in it in ...

Karachi-based music group Kashmir, that counts Bilal Ali (vocalist), Vais Khan (lead guitarist), Usman Siddiqui (bass guitarist), Shane J. Anthoney (drummer), Zair Zaki (rhythm guitarist), and Ali Raza (keyboardist) as members, is having a terrific run. But this successful run is a result of the national profile they gained by appearing and ultimately winning Pepsi Battle of the Bands last year. Of the six, four members (Bilal Ali, Shane J. Anthoney, Zair Zaki and and Ali Raza) sat down with Instep for an extensive interview.In this concluding part of their interview, the four discuss the process of shooting music videos, playing a packed (and critically acclaimed) show at the Lahore Music Meet 2018 and whether they have Bollywood dreams. “It all looks fabulous,” begins Bilal about what it takes to shoot a music video, “but a lot of hard work is put into it.”Adds Shane: “A five-minute video is a full day’s work. But it’s fun and it’s a good experience.”For Kashmir, who have been playin...

Shaheryar Ali Mirza in a still from the music video of ‘Azaad Umeedwar’.With General Elections 2018 coming up later this week, election fever is in full swing with several artists, designers, actors and singers showing solidarity with political parties and/or candidates they feel strongly about. While fashion designers are bringing out merchandise and clothes in support of different political parties, singers are lending their voice for the same cause. In recent weeks, we’ve seen Ali Azmat endorse Fauzia Kasuri while Jibran Nasir, an independent candidate from Karachi remains the front-runner when it comes to endorsements; Ahsan Bari, Faiza Saleem, Mira Sethi, Sarmad Khoosat, Abbas Ali Khan, Dino Ali, Anoushey Ashraf, Osman Khalid Butt, Kami Sid, Natasha Beyg, Sheema Kermani, Arieb Azhar, Adnan Malik, Sanam Saeed, Mohammed Ahmed, Bushra Ansari, Maria Wasti and Mooroo have starred in his campaign anthem, which is directed by Jami.The latest artist to take on the subject of politics, alb...

Opening in San Diego this weekend (July 19-22), the newest edition of Comic-Con - that takes pride in promoting nerd culture and comic book heroes – has been a spectacular affair, at least in terms of the star power that made an appearance. In addition to trailer debuts as well as exclusive footage from TV and films, this year’s edition is said to have featured the cast and crew of the upcoming film, The Predator. A remake of the 1987 film, it is directed by Shane Black and features Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Keegan-Michael Key, Trevante Rhodes, Jake Busey, Yvonne Strahovski, Thomas Jane and Augusto Aguiliera. AMC’s Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Giancarlo Esposito as well as executive producers and showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould made a splash, discussing the upcoming fourth season of the series. Another major appearance was from the writer of Avatar, Aaron Ehasz, who revealed that he is working on a new animated series ca...

Peter Rice, Dana Walden, Ben SherwoodAs it moves closer to completing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets, Disney is preparing to overhaul the leadership of Disney/ABC Television Group.21st Century Fox president Peter Rice and Fox Television Group chairman Dana Walden are slated to relocate to Disney in senior posts overseeing TV operations. Current Disney/ABC TV Group president Ben Sherwood is expected to transition to a new role at Disney, although the specifics of that role are still unclear.The management plan for the enlarged Disney/ABC TV Group has been hammered out in the past few weeks by Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger as the companies inch closer to the finish line of the transaction. Disney’s path to sealing its $71.3 billion bid was cleared Thursday when Comcast formally bowed out of the bidding war for Fox assets that it ignited last month by making a $65 billion counteroffer to Disney’s initial all-stock deal reached in December. A source close to the situation cautio...

Team Teefa, including Ayesha Fazli, Ali Zafar, Ahsan Rahim, Maya Ali and Faisal Qureshi at the premiere.The Nueplex Cinema in Karachi witnessed a phenomenal turnout for the premiere of Teefa in Trouble Thursday evening. Along with friends and family of Ali Zafar, one saw Ahsan Rahim loyalists who have known the ad and video filmmaker for over two decades and swear by his creative excellence. There were great expectations from the film and cinema enthusiasts walked out quite delighted with what they had seen. One saw hundreds of beaming smiles as the lights turned on at the end and credits rolled to the irresistible beat of ‘Item Number’; people were delighted by the quality of cinema they had just witnessed. Jawed Sheikh and Seemi Raheel, who play Anya’s father and Teefa’s mother respectively.“Thoroughly enjoyed watching #TeefaInTrouble. Fantastic visuals, excellent direction and top-notch performances by the cast. Congratulations to @AliZafarsays, @mayaali07 and @theotherahsan,” Humay...

Having had countless modeling assignments and music videos to her credit, Rabia Butt made her transition from being a model to actor in 2016 with Farouq Mengal’s Hijrat, which served as her debut film.She has now joined the cast of the much-anticipated period drama Aangan that is based on the pre-partition era.Rabia Butt has a special appearance in the upcoming play and will be essaying the character of a Hindu widow.Speaking about her character, Rabia said in a recent interview: “All the characters in the play are interconnected, except for mine. But it’s a strong character with a lot of layers that adds value to the play.”She added: “In fact, it’s one I feel strongly about and can also relate with. Kusum is a Hindu widow who is rebelling against the norms of society. During days when Hindu widows were made to chop their hair off, you see her with beautiful long hair.”Directed by Mohammad Ehteshamuddin of Udaari fame, the upcoming play has an all-star cast that includes Ahsan Khan, Ah...

Ali Zafar and Maya Ali-starrer feature film Teefa In Trouble, which marks Ahsan Rahim’s directorial debut, is scheduled to release worldwide today (July 20). While most Pakistani filmmakers choose to release their films during Eid (particularly big banner projects) in order to cash in on the holiday season, Teefa In Trouble will be released almost a month before Eid ul Azha.Speaking of releasing the film on a regular Friday and not during the festive season, distributor of the film Nadeem Mandviwalla told Instep, “Being the distributor of the film, I took the step to release it off Eid. You have to compromise on a few things but then the kind of competition you are facing with so many films, you end up compromising in that case as well. It becomes pointless because if you bring it out with eight other films, cinemas cannot give you more than two shows. So, which is better? To go off Eid or to come on Eid? And we decided to take this risk.”He added: “If your picture is good, it will do ...

Look online or around you even, there are people who are struggling with mental health issues. We know the numbers have been rising and it is an epidemic. We remember Deepika Padukone as one of the leading figures from modern Bollywood to speak about her struggle with depression. Karan Johar has spoken about his battle with clinical depression. Ileana D’Cruz has also spoken about her struggle with depression and body dysmorphic disorder. In Pakistan, artists such as Momina Mustehsan, Saheefa Jabbar Khattak and Nouman Javaid have spoken about their struggles while, Mahira Khan and Meesha Shafi, in the aftermath of the suicide of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain earlier this year, have spoken up about the need for awareness and outreach to better understand these issues. Hollywood, it seems, is looking at the same issues. Noted The Hollywood Reporter (THR) in a cover story after speaking to members of film, television and music industries, “Speak to writers, producers, actors and executiv...

The way Rajkumar Hirani’s latest film, Sanju - a biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt with Ranbir Kapoor starring in the titular role – is minting money on the box office, it surely is a sign for local filmmakers to shift their attention from routine films to biopics. Although, Sanju seems more of an attempt to ‘dry-clean’ the dirt from the yesteryears of Bollywood legend Sanjay Dutt’s life, it failed to touch upon many issues.In Pakistan, we have had many superstars, who have suffered as much as Dutt Jr. Actor and producer Waheed Murad was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He entered the industry with a bang, ruled the hearts for over a decade but died a broken man. The dashing Syed Ishrat Abbas, better known as Darpan, could not survive the changing times when a younger Muhammad Ali and Nadeem transformed the face of the industry in late sixties. However, the story of legendary actress Rani has all the flavors that a ‘screenplay’ of a successful film requires. Born as Nasira in December ...

Music group Kashmir has been playing together for the past several years but their entrance into mainstream began last year. Emerging as the winning band on Pepsi Battle of the Bands in 2017, the six member band has had a dream run since then. They picked up an Lux Style Awards nod for their song, ‘Kaghaz Ka Jahaz’ and ultimately won the trophy. They also performed an iconic show at the Lahore Music Meet in 2018 and have released their debut album as well as a music video. In between the group has also starred in two Pepsi TVCs; one featured Fawad Khan, Zoheb Hassan, Shahi Hasan, Wasim Akram, Reema Khan and Kashmir. The second one, released just this month, served as the kick-off to Pepsi Battle of the Bands’s third season also featured the band. Among the many high points in the second TVC, one sequence has Fawad Khan singing Kashmir’s ‘Kaghaz Ka Jahaz’. But if you think this is where Kashmir’s presence in the third season ends, think again. As the band told Instep, “We met with all t...

Charlize Theron on a panel during last year’s Comic-Con edition. According to a recent survey done by Comic-Con organizers on attendees, they have struck at least a partial gender balance with “54 per cent identifying as male, 44 per cent as female and 2 per cent as other,” noted Variety. “It is inclusive,” reiterated David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s chief communications and strategy officer. “I think we’re seeing a lot more women at the show than ever before, in terms of fans and attendees.”However, Comic-Con has a serious problem when it comes to female representation on their panels, particularly in Hall H, the most high-profile stage in the event that accommodates 6500 audience members. As Variety noted in a new story that looked at panelists between 2013 to 2017, “just 29 per cent of the 1,061 panelists were women. Only 14 non-actor women appeared on panels promoting television shows and only 10 on panels promoting films.” Gal Gadot & Chris Pine present Wonder Woman at Comic-Con, ci...

Mehwish Hayat stars as Meeru, a polio worker in Load Wedding.Filmmakers Nabeel Qureshi and Fizza Ali Meerza are now veritable box office darlings. With Na Maloom Afraad and Actor in Law, they’ve delivered two extremely successful films and even though Na Maloom Afraad 2 didn’t manage to match the excellence of its predecessor (in my opinion), it was a super success nevertheless. The director-producer duo, with just three films, has managed to establish a reputation for their brand of filmmaking and they appear to be hitting it out of the park – once again – with the upcoming Load Wedding.The official theatrical trailer for Load Wedding released Tuesday night and it is intriguing for a number of reasons. This is the first time that Nabeel Qureshi has moved out of his apparent comfort zone of making Karachi-centric movies and has taken a trip to Punjab. The protagonist, Raju – played by Fahad Mustafa – is a village simpleton in love with his childhood crush, Meeru – played by Mehwish Hay...

With the theatre scene gradually growing in Pakistan, more and more plays are being created and performed to enthrall theatre lovers across the country. Amidst some of the productions that are scheduled to premiere in the coming days and months, there is one called Apartment # 746 which is an Urdu adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s farcical play, Black Comedy. Written by Talal Jilani, the upcoming play follows the story of a guy named Abbas while it has been directed by Syed Meesam Raza Naqvi.“It is relevant to the current situation of our country,” writer of the play, Syed Talal Jilani told Instep in a telephonic conversation. “It’s a chaotic play with slapstick jokes but is also relevant to our part of the world and highlights issues such as load shedding, marriage, etc.”Speaking of the challenges they faced while adapting the play and keeping it relevant to Pakistan at the same time, Talal shared, “There were a couple of things that we needed to modify in terms of style and relevance bec...

Ali Zafar and Maya Ali dancing on water amidst gorgeous surroundings in ‘Sajna Door’.Ahsan Rahim’s Teefa In Trouble that stars Ali Zafar and Maya Ali in lead roles is all set to premiere on Thursday in Karachi, followed by its worldwide release on Friday, July 20. Quite recently, the music video for the third song from the film ‘Sajna Door’ was released after two successful song releases; ‘Item Number’, an upbeat dance number that has gotten over 6.5 million views on YouTube and the soulful ‘Chan Ve’ with over 8.3 million views.While both the songs have managed to impress with their peppy tunes and catchy lyrics, ‘Sajna Door’ is a change of pace and is a soft romantic ballad, penned and composed by Ali Zafar and his brother Danyal Zafar. Singer Aima Baig and Ali Zafar have lent their voices to the mellow composition with music arrangement by Baqir Abbas, Hassan Badshah and Ali Zafar.With sharp cinematography by Zain Haleem, the video of ‘Sajna Door’ has been shot in Poland and features...

When Pepsi Battle of the Bands made a comeback last year with its second season after more than a decade, with a new producer and a new set of judges, the ultimate result was a somewhat mixed bag. It, did, however, pluck several existing bands from obscurity and put them into the national spotlight with Kashmir ultimately winning the competition and Badnaam picking up the runner’s up title and everything that came along with it. Because PBOTB had returned after years, the mistakes were forgiven. But, it also meant that with season three the expectations from the bands as well as the judges and the entire production had risen. One expected there to be a stronger filtering process so that the bands that appeared in the audition episodes in order to win a slot in the top eight had grit, flavor, diversity, musicianship and character. Fortunately, the first episode of the third season that appeared a day or so ago, lives up to those promises. Unlike last year, where more than 100 bands appl...

Academy award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is known for highlighting important social issues through her work that has global appeal.The latest project from SOC Films is a campaign called ‘Shor Nahi Awaaz Bano’, a public service message leading up to the elections that will take place later this month (July 25).“This campaign is conceptualized and initiated by my team at SOC Films who feel very strongly that this year is important for the elections and one in which people cannot sit on the sidelines,” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy said in a press statement. “The idea is to educate voters about their rights, what to expect on Election Day, why voting matters, how to vote and information about polling stations. We are deploying and dedicating our social media for this campaign and encouraging everyone to share these widely. The future of Pakistan depends on the willingness to vote.”‘Shor Nahi Awaaz Bano’ will comprise a series of public announcements both in English and Urdu leading u...

One of the most anticipated films of 2018, Load Wedding, which is produced by Filmwala Pictures, has announced that it is collaborating with Zee Studios International for the film’s international release. Directed by Nabeel Qureshi, Load Wedding stars Mehwish Hayat and Fahad Mustafa in lead roles and is scheduled to release on Eid ul Azha in Pakistan and worldwide including USA, Canada, UK, Singapore, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, several Middle Eastern countries and Mauritius. “This is a great moment and it just feels phenomenal to be able to take Load Wedding to so many new markets with this amazing collaboration,” said Fizza Ali Meerza, co-producer of the film and CEO Filmwala Pictures in a press statement. “Zee Studios International has an immense reach across the globe; we are honoured that they felt Load Wedding was the right Pakistani film for them to come onboard and help us reach new territories, markets and audiences – making Pakistani cinema global.Besides, Nab...