Parizaad’s finale screening – a larger than life affair!
With everyone’s favourite Parizaad coming to a rather heartwarming end this week on TV, die-hard fans got to witness the grand finale four days before the show aired this past week. The finale screening was attended by the ensemble cast and crew of the show. A special screening of the episode was also held earlier in the last week of January in Lahore which was attended by many prominent celebrities along with the cast and crew of the drama. Gathering praise left and right was the man of the hour, Ahmed Ali Akbar, who blew the entire nation away with his tactful portrayal of Parizaad, making it a story to remember for years to come. The screening was also attended by the supporting cast including Nauman Ijaz, Zaviyar Ijaz, Saboor Aly and Ushna Shah.
Celebrities unite to protest against the ban of Javed Iqbal: The Story Of A Serial Killer
Javed Iqbal: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer had its star-studded premiere in Karachi on January 25 and was all set to premiere in Lahore, however, the Government of Punjab and the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) pulled the Yasir Hussain and Ayesha Omar starrer from cinemas a day before its release on January 28th. The director Abu Aleeha and the lead actors expressed their disappointment over the decision and have since then been joined by a number of celebrities protesting against the ban in Punjab.
“Why can’t we just accept the fact that this really happened in the ’90s. Is Pakistani entertainment only limited to comedy and romance?” asked Iqra Aziz in an Insta post dedicated to her husband’s film.
Actor Ali Rehman Khan also took to Twitter to ask, “With a film industry trying to stay buoyant, how on earth can we move forward when every other film gets banned for no real apparent reason? Time to think beyond our personal prejudices and insecurities and allow for real stories to be told.”
Osman Khalid Butt, who has also never shied away from expressing his opinion, tweeted how this was a terrible look for the Pakistani cinema: “Release the Javed Iqbal film! Halting it ‘in the wake of persistent complaints received from different quarters’ after it was cleared for release by all censor boards is incredibly vague and a terrible look for the future of Pakistani cinema.”
Mirza Gohar Rasheed too felt it was about time that the censor boards start respecting and understanding different genres of story-telling and begged them to let the industry grow. Television host Nida Yasir commented under Yasir Hussain’s post sharing that films cannot be made if the country does not support them. Several other celebrities have also extended their support to the film including Faysal Quraishi, Ali Kazmi, Aiman Khan and Hania Aamir.
