Wiam Dahmani with Pakistani Actress Meera
Finding a
lead actress for his upcoming Sufi-drama film Ishq Khuda has been a great
headache for director Shehzad Rafique. Since the pre production stage of the
movie, we have only heard about actresses joining the project and then leaving
it on midway for their personal and professional reasons.
Finally with
the ‘film hitting its sets’ earlier this month, the director Shehzad Rafique
sort out the big actress issue by signing the sizzling Arabian actress ‘Wiam
Dahmani’.
Replacing
Zara Sheikh; who by the way left project citing her mother’s illness as the
reason, Wiam Dahmani is not only in Pakistan these days to get her work
recorded but has also quickly developed a unique love for the country and
especially its food.
In a recent
chit-chat with Galaxy Lollywood, the charming actress talked about ‘Pakistan,
her love for films and much more’. But before moving onto the interview, let me
tell you one thing, Wiam not only has a little bit command on Urdu but has also
kept a great eye on the issues related to Pakistani film industry.
Q: So Wiam, let me start by asking
you about the treatment you are getting these days in Pakistan. We know you are
currently in some ‘Wadi’ for the shooting, tell me more about this Wadi and
how’s your experience overall there?
Well,
Pakistan Zabardast!! (Laughs), everything is nice and we are shooting in this
beautiful village named ‘Waadi-e-Soon’, I am enjoying how cooperative, how
comforting everyone is here.
Besides
shooting I am actually trying to consume the environment here, being friendly
with people and it’s all helping me out in portraying my character. So my
experience here has been really good so far.
Q: Moving on to the real reason you
are these days in Pakistan. We mainly know you as a singer mostly and that too
because of your recent association with Pakistani band ‘Suroor’. How did you
actually end up signing Ishq Khuda. How Shehzad (director) convinced you?
It’s always
about the script, your co-stars and the team you are going to work with. When
Shehzad approached me he said and he still says this sometimes during the
shooting that ‘Oh my God’, you are so into Kulsoom”—‘Kulsoom’ is the name of my
character in the movie by the way’—and he was like you are perfect for this
role. So once I was convinced, I never looked back.
Q: Tell us what actually your role is
in the film, would we be also seeing you performing on some romantic song in
the film, because songs are integral part of Pakistani films and one thing is
sure that with an amazing music team that Shehzad has on board, the music is
going to be a blast. So should we expect something really special?
Haan.. Haan
bilkul, you see music; especially in Lollywood and Bollywood stands for almost
60% success of the film. One thing that I recently discovered about Shehzad is
that he is a huge music fan himself, we have got quite big names in the film,
Rahat is there, and Shazia Manzoor has few songs in the movie too. I am
actually performing on one of Rahat’s songs, so hopefully it will be a good
treat for fans.
About the
role, I am actually playing a full modern Punjabi girl named Kulsoom, it’s been
quite an interesting experience for me, also in the sense that it is the first
time I am playing the role of some Punjabi girl. ‘Meera ji’ is in the film,
Ahsan Khan is here and then of course the superstar Shaan, so it’s all amazing
being one amongst all of them.
Q: Ishq Khuda must be an important
project for you also in the sense that you are making your film debut through
it. How enjoyable and different you found film from singing or hosting shows or
even doing television serials?
Well acting
is acting and it becomes more difficult when it’s a film. Professionally
speaking, I am no strange to the 35 mm cinematic camera because I already shot
two of my music videos on the same scale with Indian directors. So it’s not
something weird for me but ‘Bilkul’ it is different when you are doing a
feature film, a film is always huge when it comes to the work level but
MashaAllah ‘Shehzad sahib’ is such a professional director that his support
made it all very easy.
Q: Shehzad Rafique is known for his
quality work in the film industry, how is your experience so far working with
him?
As a
director I see him bilkul perfectionist. He just doesn’t take a shot and moves
on until and unless it’s the one that he had already perceived in mind. He
keeps watching the scene millions of times and he is not like, ‘Ok, let’s skip
to next shot’, No! He makes sure that whatever he has captured is the best he
could get. And also he is always guiding about the scenes, movements and all.
For example if I am doing a romantic shot, so he says ‘Ok you remember that
scene from that particular movie’ and it always helps. He is quite strict let
me tell you (laughs), but in a good way because even he knows that being harsh
on actors might end up in artist losing the concentration and that is never
good.
Q: Ok Wiam, you have worked quite a
bit with the ‘sub-continental entertainment industry’, even before Ishq Khuda.
Having a completely different background, how different or difficult it was to
come into a hugely different atmosphere and get adjusted in it, keeping in mind
the language barriers, the cultural ones and all that. How you cope up with
such factors?
Well it
wasn’t really difficult for me also because I am a movie loving person, I am so
crazy about movies that I have watched all kind of films, Filipino, Italian,
French, English, Urdu, Tamil and literally in every language, I have even seen
Salakhain, Muhabbatan Sachiyan and twenty to forty other Pakistani films from
industry’s ‘golden age’, because you know when an artist is indirectly in touch
with a particular culture; be it through watching films or anything, he or she
gets to learn many things. Just take the ‘Misaal’ (Example) of small facial
expression for word ‘Yes’, it would be different in Pakistani films, completely
different in Hollywood films and so on. So films in a sense teach you many
things and that’s been the reason it didn’t create much of a problem for me.
There are
many actors working in Bollywood who know nothing about Urdu or Hindi but still
they are hit and doing some really good work there, Katrina Kaif is one of them
and also the Canadian girl in Mahesh Bhatt’s recently released film Blood
Money, so it isn’t a big deal and at the end you have the best solution
‘dubbing’ (laughs), so no big deal.
Q: From whatever you talked it can
easily be derived that you have done your study on Pakistan film Industry. It
must have been in your knowledge that the industry is in its bad patch and good
films aren’t really being produced as often as in India or Iran or any other
established industry. How you see yourself making a debut in such an
environment.
Let me tell
you one thing, I did a lot of research on Pakistani industry before coming
here. What I feel is that Pakistani people are really thirsty for entertainment.
This is an upside for filmmakers here that they have a huge market that has a
thirst for good films, ‘tau’ why not produce some films… ‘Kyun Nahin’.
I tell you
something, I give Lollywood five years from here and Insha’Allah it will rise
and you will see money here, you will prosperity and you will see it competing
with other international industries. In fact I already heard about a big
production film Waar, Shaan is doing a great job there then there is Ishq Khuda
coming up, a completely different film, the camera, the lighting, the strong
story it has, so it’s all going in the right direction.
Q: Ok now while I am in the phase of
wrapping this interview up, tell me keeping in mind your experience in
Pakistan, are we going to see you more involved in Pakistani entertainment
industry in future, be it films, TV or even singing?
I am so
happy to be in Pakistan, they have a rich culture, very simple people and I
love the food here. Besides Ishq Khuda I am involved in some other projects but
I seriously don’t mind, ‘Shehzad Sahab’ also asked me the same thing that ‘
Wiam, would you return and work again in Pakistan after you do a film in other
industries and become hit’? And I said ‘haan Kyun Naheen’? If my co-star will
be a good actor if the script would be good, then of course yes!
Interview was conducted by editor Galaxy Lollywood “Aayan Mirza”
Pictures from the on location shoot of Ishq Khuda
