A LOLLYWOOD film shot in Bahrain almost five years ago is finally set to hit the silver screen in Pakistan during Eid, and the team behind the film is hoping to woo distributors in Bahrain and the GCC by then.
With line production work in Bahrain done by local production house Blu Steel Films, Babylicious, a romantic comedy with Pakistani stars Syra Yousuf, 35, and Shehroz Sabzwari, 37, leading the cast, has conquered more than its share of challenges in the last five years, including the Covid-19 pandemic, a divorce between the lead actors and cinema shutdowns in Pakistan due to its economic crisis.
“After we finished shooting in Bahrain in November 2018, we had some wrap work we finished in 2019 and then Covid-19 happened,” the film’s British-Pakistani director Omar Essa Khan, 40, told the GDN from Lahore during an interview.
“I wanted to release it on Valentine’s in 2022 and 2023, but everything was closed due to the pandemic last year, and this year, the cinemas were shut during the week. And filmgoers were suggesting Eid so we went with Eid Al Adha.”
Set in a fictional world, the love story, colloquially called a ‘teen flick’, is centred on hopeless romantic Omar (Mr Sabzwari) who takes on the world after being dumped by his girlfriend to sabotage her wedding and win her back.
Ms Yousuf stars as Sabiha, and at the time of the shoot in 2018, the two were amongst the hottest celebrity couples in Pakistan. Since then, however, they got divorced in 2020.
It originally started out as an idea for a TV series, but graduated to a full-on Lollywood production – the name given to Pakistani cinema.
The film is due to be released on June 27 in Pakistan and Mr Khan also noted that he is currently looking for distributors and theatres in Bahrain and the GCC region that might be interested in screening the film.
The soundtrack for the film was recently released and is already generating buzz for one of its tracks – Ghazab Kurriye (‘Amazing Woman’, in Urdu), which was filmed entirely by Blu Steel and is set at Bushido restaurant, which the crew would convert into a wedding set every night at 1am, once diners had left.
In 2018, the GDN reported on the large crew from Pakistan, India, the US and France flying in to the kingdom to film the majority of the film here, after filming 30pc in Pakistan.
According to Mr Khan, the overseas crew worked with a large local team, with Blu Steel Films co-founder Mohammed Fakhro “taking care of pretty much everything” so Mr Khan could focus on directing the film.
“The Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities was instrumental in helping the overseas crew get visas and customs, as well as facilitating the entire project,” added Mr Fakhro, who was the line producer for the film.
“This was our first feature film, so it was a much larger task to take on compared to previous short films or commercials.”
In addition to Bushido, filming in Bahrain took place in a number of locations including Riffa Views, Diyar Al Muharraq, City Centre Bahrain and Lanterns, and Mr Khan hopes that his film highlights Bahrain as a potential tourism location.
The director was delighted with his filming experience and believes Bahrain could continue to provide a great location for other film-makers, especially from Pakistan and India, because of its diversity, welcoming people and East-meets-West aesthetic.
Mr Fakhro added that the kingdom’s small size, diverse talent and lower production costs also make it a haven for overseas film-makers.
Babylicious has been produced by Coconut Pakistan in association with Tenup, with its Bahrain-based crew including Mr Fakhro, casting director Imtiaz Ali Balooshi and production designer Sweccha Sharma.
Music was composed by Adrian David, Dev Thape directed choreography, Palwasha Yousuf designed costumes, Himani Patel was the art director and Blu Steel Films co-founder Zohaib Latif was director of photography for the film.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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