Rangreza's first poster is finally out and it's brimming with romance and mischief

Strongly moving towards its release at the end of this year, the highly anticipated movie Rangreza finally released its aesthetically powerful poster. The poster shows the main cast of the movie, Bilal Ashraf, Urwa Hocane and Gohar Rasheed as depicted in their roles. It’s a portrayal of various emotions displayed by the actors – love, hurt and even mischief. And it definitely has us excited!

Following Janaan’s widest release for a Pakistani film internationally, Rangreza is now set to break a new record number of countries as part of its worldwide distribution strategy, establishing a whole new benchmark for Pakistani cinema on a global platform, stated a press release.

Making one of the most expensive Pakistani film productions to date, Rangreza is a musical romance directed by Aamir Mohiuddin, featuring Gohar Rasheed, Bilal Ashraf, Urwa Hocane and Saleem Miraj in the principal cast.

Musical legend, Abida Parveen, features prominently on the sound tracks, composed by the film’s writer, Akhtar Qayyum. The film is presented by Vision Art Films, Usman Malkani Films, Distribution Club (PVT) Ltd, Munir Hussain Films UK and Pepe’s Piri Piri and will be distributed worldwide by B4U Motion Pictures.

Munir Hussain, Head of Munir Hussain Film UK says, “I’m very excited to bring another highly anticipated film, which will showcase the growing strength of Pakistani cinema. We have some creative plans in place for the release and we are grateful to Mr. Sunil Shah and B4U for their excellent support and guidance.

” Director Aamir Mohiuddin also shared his thoughts, “Rangreza is a movie that will touch millions of hearts. The entire team has put in their best and this will be another significant milestone for the Pakistani cinema.”

Sunil Shah, Head of Film Division, B4U Motion Pictures expressed, “ We are delighted to be further commenting our great partnership with Munir Hussain Films UK with the release of Rangreza, following unprecedented success of our previous outing together, Janaan.

” He continued, “Munir Hussain has such a pioneering and passionate vision for Pakistani cinema on a global platform and we are honoured to be jointly taking Pakistani cinema to another level with Rangreza, across a record number of international territories.

Pakistan goes Pixar-esque with ‘Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor’

A couple of months ago, the teaser of a Pakistani animated film Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor went viral. With picturesque views and the eventual “Pixar-esque” introduction of our character Allahyar caught everyone’s attention as to how much Pakistani animation has progressed and whether Allahyar will break any new grounds at all.

A couple of months ago, the teaser of a Pakistani animated film Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor went viral. With picturesque views and the eventual “Pixar-esque” introduction of our character Allahyar caught everyone’s attention as to how much Pakistani animation has progressed and whether Allahyar will break any new grounds at all.

The Express Tribune spoke with director Uzair Zaheer Khan about the upcoming film, which is intended for winter release. What many may not know is Khan was also involved with the acclaimed Burka Avenger series as well. And it’ll interesting to see how his visual language and style has evolved with Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor.

Explaining the idea of the film, Khan didn’t quite go into specifics, thus building more curiosity for the film. “Allahyar is a young Pakistani boy from the north, who has ideals and ambitions that get challenged when he’s thrown into an adventure where he discovers a world he never knew existed,” he said, adding that Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor is a coming-of-age story with a wildlife conservation theme.

He said that the aim was to make a film that’s entertaining, meaningful, and caters to the local audiences in terms of language, culture and values.

 The cast of the film includes Ali Noor, Natasha Humaira Ejaz, Anam Zaidi and Azfar Jafri. With a ‘very-musical’ cast, the film is bound to have multiple songs. Khan confirmed, saying “The songs in the film have been composed and produced through partnerships between Ahmed Ali and artists like (Ali) Noor and (Natasha Humaira) Ejaz. We make sure that the message is embedded within the entertainment and not delivered on the nose.

Khan’s previous outing Burka Avenger had a distinct visual style with striking color palettes. As to how Allahyar will be different from that, when it comes to world building and treatment, Khan said, the tv series was very stylised and designed with requirements and constraints of the project in mind. “With Burka Avenger I wanted to set a local benchmark for animated series. Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor is a feature film and therefore requires a much higher production value,” he said. “As we aspire to eventually compete in the international market with our consecutive films, we’ve tried to deliver top quality, while keeping the cost of production at par with local live action films.

” While giving importance to style, the team hasn’t forgotten about the substance either. Where Burka Avenger had a social message about women’s rights and education, (as Khan mentioned earlier) Allahyar will highlight with wildlife conservation. The director believes animation is the perfect medium for that. “Animation is a powerful medium. We feel it is incumbent on us that through our film, along with a full dose of entertainment, we try to bring about positive change.

” Whether Allahyar is going to set a new benchmark when it comes to Pakistani animated films or not remains to be seen, but for now, Khan is clearly confident about the film. “We are looking forward to making Pakistanis proud of what we’ve achieved here with this film,” he said.

'Na Maloom Afraad 2' banned in Punjab due to 'inappropriate content'

After five weeks and collecting more than Rs100 million at the box office, the Fahad Mustafa-starrer Na Maloom Afraad 2 has been banned in Punjab.

The reason has been cited as the film’s inappropriate and ‘obscene’ content.

 None of the stakeholders were available to comment on the situation, except the film’s producer Fizza Ali Meerza.

 “I don’t understand why they came up with an excuse to ban the film five weeks after its release,” Meerza told The Express Tribune.

As to how the issue was triggered, she stated, “Some random newspaper in Lahore with no credibility or readership wrote that the film has vulgar and inappropriate scenes. It’s sad because now this isn’t just about this film. Now if anyone thinks there is something wrong with any film, will they pull it off the screens just like that?”

She continued, “I find it difficult because they have done it before too and I think we are in the wrong business now.”

While she was disappointed with the sudden ban, Meerza said they will not back down. “Yes, we will fight back. We are not going to stay quiet because this affects our industry as a whole too. We will get the Na Maloom Afraad 2 back in the cinemas.”

Praises pour in for Mahira Khan after Verna's teaser release

Mahira Khan has been completely mum about the entire Ranbir Kapoor and the viral pictures fiasco. The lady seemed to have vanished off social media for good. But yesterday she made a powerful comeback with her Power Di Game.

Mahira Khan's upcoming film Verna, saw its teaser released yesterday and what a powerful re-entry on the mainstream it marked for Mahira. The teaser came across as a message that Mahira Khan was indestructive and not to be messed with at all.

The teaser showed a fierce side of the actress, something which we have never seen before. And we're very much glad we'll get to see Mahira in an avatar the lady has not taken up ever before.

With us in awe of the thirty second teaser; what was heartening, was to see was Mahira's friends and of course the industry taking to social media to compliment the star on such an impressive glimpse in to her upcoming movie, directed by Shoaib Mansoor.

Now that the teaser of Verna has been released, we cant wait to see the movie on November 17th 2017 where Mahira Khan is essaying a role she has never done before. We loved it, but what did you think of Mahira Khan in the teaser?

Do share your thoughts with us in the comment box below.

"Main tou Punjab hoker aagai" The Punjab Nahi Jaungi fever hits Shaniera Akram!

The Punjab Nahi Jaungi fever refuses to die. The film has become the highest grosser of the year domestically and has still been earning crazy revenues overseas. The craze is far from dying out just yet and the latest celebrity to have been bit by the Punjab Nahi Jaungi bug happens to be none other than our National Bhabhi, Shaniera Akram.

On a recent trip to Punjab, Shaniera Akram shared a beautiful picture of hers amongst green fields and tweeted, "Main tou Punjab hoker aagai"

What made the picture even more likable was the fact that Bhabhi used Urdu to express her feelings with #PunjabNahiJaungi. And of course Khagga sahab picked up the tweet and gave an adorable reply.

So, as sweet as he is, Humayun Saeed, our very own Khagga Sahab, promised he'll be having them over soon for a special screening perhaps.

'Azaadi' is all set to hit the big screen this November

With the revival of cinema, it is good to see people be enthusiastic for our local movies exactly as they would be for a Hollywood or a Bollywood release. This is exactly how we felt when we saw the trailer of Sonya Hussyn and Moammer Rana starrer movie Azaadi. Since then we've been eagerly waiting for its release date. Well guys the wait on that is finally over and we couldn't be more thrilled!

A Pervez Malik Film and an ARY Films product, Azaadi is all set to release this year in November, and with the poster looking quite sleek, we got in touch with Sonya Hussyn, to ask how proud she is of the movie.

"I have invested a lot of myself for Azaadi and it's been a worthwhile journey. Like I have said repeatedly, I am very proud of the message of the film and what it tries to convey. It is a very honest homage to Pakistan and its armed forces but what excites me the most is how inspirational my character is going to be for the young girls".

"It was only natural for a film as huge as Azaadi to delay slightly as there are a lot of aspects that come into consideration since a lot of action is involved. Also the post-production needed due attention and I have dubbed for most of the film and it looks amazing. Our cinematographer, Ben (Jasper) is truly gifted."

With Sonya quite content and looking forward to Azaadi, we also got in touch with the producer of the movie, Irfan Malik and asked him what took him so long to set a release date, considering the teaser came out back in February.

"Normally it takes almost a year to complete a film like this one as the team had to travel to the remotest areas to capture authentic locations, but it surely was worth the effort. I didn't want to give out an official release date and then change it later like many films have done as It takes away from the credibility of the film I feel. So I waited to complete sequences that had 'difficult' written all over them and Alhamdulillah we are on track now with one song and some action sequences remaining to be shot in August/September and post production running parallel."

With the final touches being added in full swing, Azaadi has our full attention as it is about a man, played by the legendary actor Nadeem Baig, who has dreamt his entire life for the freedom of Kashmiris. The film is commemorating the struggle for Kashmir.

With Moammer Rana bringing with him that cinematic appeal and Bang Bang famed Ben Jasper behind cinematography, we look forward to watching the movie soon. We will also see Javed Sheikh, Maryam Ansari, Ali Fateh, Samama, Waseem, Erum and Ali Bilal to name a few.