The team behind Parwaaz, a Hindi-language drama that is being entirely shot in the UAE, are determined to take the path less travelled. Their brief is straightforward: The actors will not be over-dramatic; the women of Parwaaz will not be dripping in make-up and jewels even when sleeping; and they won’t stretch the serial beyond its 13 one-hour episodes.
“We were thinking of making an intelligent series that [is] realistic. Across all channels in India, most TV serials are set against a household and its members who wear lots of make-up. We want to move away from them and make a drama that’s realistic in its treatment,” said Manoj Mathew, Zee TV’s chief content and creative officer for Mena.
Parwaaz will air on Zee TV Middle East for its UAE viewers from November 8 every Saturday at 9.30pm. A dubbed version in Arabic on Zee Aflam is planned.
Parwaaz, directed by Faheim Inamdar of Uttaran fame, chronicles the lives of two men, Adarsh from India (Devansa Vasan), and Sikander (Noman Habib) from Pakistan, who arrive in the UAE in the early 1990s. They are armed with visas and the dream of making it big in the UAE. But they find themselves conned by an unscrupulous agent who promised them jobs, and are stranded at the airport with no money. An unlikely kinship forms between Adarsh and Sikander and the serial follows their trials and triumphs in the next two decades.
“We want to keep it as real as possible so that their experiences will resonate with the expatriates living here. If we have to show them living in a sharing accommodation, we have shown it,” added Mathew.
True to his word, when tabloid! dropped in this week on their shooting location, the actors were busy filming the first two episodes of Parwaaz in a modest two-bedroom apartment near the Arab Mall in Sharjah. There were no bejewelled women in sight and we were witness to some restrained acting from Vasan, who was seen arguing with his on-screen wife (Pakistani actress Suzain Fatima). She was complaining about Adarsh bailing out Sikander from situations instead of spending time with her on their anniversary.
Habib, who played the title role in Pakistani sports drama Main Shahid Afridi Hoon, says playing a complex character such as Sikander is right up his street.
“There are many shades to Sikander and I like that about him. I have been to Dubai around six times, but it’s my first serial in the UAE. We have long dialogues to deliver but the way it has been written it makes it easy for us read it out because it feels as if it’s coming from the heart. This serial will touch people in some way,” said Habib, who is known to work in one project at a time.
“Parwaaz is a 13-episode series. We don’t let the story stretch because a serial is like eating sweets after a meal. If you eat little, it’s tasty but if you have too many servings of sweets, its appeal fades,” he added.
But the auditions weren’t as sweet. Actor Vasan claims he beat 300 aspiring actors in the auditions to reach this point.
“I remember doing a commercial for Dubai Expo 2020 last year and I never thought I will be back so soon to film an entire TV series. But the experience has been wonderful. I hope this serial resonates with the expatriates living here and our roles stay in their hearts for long.”
Executive producer Suhael Anwer, from Magnum Opus Productions, who came up with concept and has written the dialogues of Parwaaz, says the format of narration isn’t linear.
“It switches from past and present. Incidents from the present take them to the past. It isn’t easy but it will make the story more interesting. With this serial, I want people to feel nostalgic… Adarsh and Sikander are two contrasting personalities. Adarsh is sincere in his work, while Sikander wants to succeed at a rapid pace and get into something shady,” said Anwer. The biggest challenge was to recreate 1990s Dubai.
“To capture that era wasn’t easy, so I had to go to deep inside Sharjah or Fujairah, Initially, we thought Deira may work but only the dhows remain unchanged. The rest looks modern. The roads look better, the cars have changed and those taxis and mobile handsets weren’t easy to source,” said Anwer.
While the technical crew has been flown from India for this Dh1.5 million project, the director spent months looking for his stars in the UAE.
“90 per cent of the cast is from the UAE. There’s huge talent pool here. With Parwaaz, I hope many people know them and they get their share of limelight. They all know acting from their theatre days, but they are unfamiliar with the techniques that go into making a situational series,” said Inamdar between shots.
Singer and former UAE cricket team vice captain Adel Farooq, an Emirati-Pakistani, plays a villain in his debut acting role. Local RJ Hansraj, known for his deep voice, plays a friend of Adarsh.
“If you are a villain and you act well, then viewers rarely forget a bad villain. I am not the Prem Chopra kind of villain here. The brief given was that I play a guy larger-than-life, he’s suave and cunning. I am the trouble-maker. Such serials are a great platform for aspiring actors like us,” said Farooq.
