Riding high on the success of his latest film Na Maloom Afraad 2, which is also his third consecutive hit, director Nabeel Qureshi has already moved on to his next, where he will collaborate with friend and producer cum co-writer Fizza Ali Meerza.
“Yes, we’re developing a script,” he tells Gulf News tabloid!. Though he wouldn’t disclose what it is about, he declares that he “personally enjoy[s] making con movies.” It’s a genre he has attempted twice.
“I believe that our audience is quite entertainment-starved, so a feel-good film works best for them,” he adds. “Even if you mean to give a message through your film, you should do so in a fun way, like we tried to do in Actor In Law [in 2016].”
Meanwhile, as NMA2 continues its glorious run at the domestic box office, especially in the Karachi circuit, its major producers — Excellency Films, which is an umbrella banner of three giant multiplex chain owners — have courted controversy for monopolising the film’s shows against Punjab Nahi Jaungi, the other big release this past Eid.
Qureshi does not reject the charge. He says: “Firstly, there’s no such rule that a cinema owner cannot finance a film. In the past, we’ve had such precedents. More recently, Summit Entertainment, a sister concern of Super Cinema chain of multiplexes, produced Jawad Bashir’s film [Teri Meri Love Story]; they obviously gave their film the maximum number of shows at their screens. But, surprisingly, no one raised this issue. Film distributor Amjad Rasheed [of IMGC] has invested in [Javed] Shaikh saheb’s Wajood; he also owns cinemas in Sargodha and Mandi Bahauddin. Would you blame him if the film gets most shows at these sites? I wouldn’t; they are doing business, after all. If a gourmet shop makes a soft drink, do you expect it to sell Cola and not its own product?”
The award-winning filmmaker goes on to state that the varying durations of both NMA2 and PNJ dictated which film should get more shows.
“PNJ is 2 hours and 40 minutes long, while our film’s length is 1 hour and 58 minutes. That means that for every two shows of PNJ, we’d be getting three shows for NMA2,” he said.
The imbalance, Qureshi admits, might be visible at certain cinemas but “if you count the total number of shows all over Pakistan, NMA2 got 131 while PNJ got 128. So, it’s merely a difference of three shows that you are talking about.”
He also attributes the “difference” in numbers to the fact that “we had better advance booking [compared to PNJ], especially in Karachi.
“Let me conclude by saying that getting more shows may give you an edge initially but at the end of the day your film will run only on word of mouth,” he added.
It’s a lesson he has learnt the hard way. Back in 2014, when his debut feature Na Maloom Afraad, the prequel to NMA2, was released, all the major multiplexes were heavily inclined towards Bollywood’s blockbuster Bang Bang as well as the local, big-budgeted O21. The latter was backed by a big TV channel, and also starred Shaan Shahid, a superstar who was coming back after the previous year’s money-spinner Waar.
