Pakistani Cinema

Wiam Dahmani on Pakistan, her love for films and much more.. - GalaxyLollywood Article

Posted: 21 Apr 2012 06:32 AM PDT

Wiam Dahmani with Pakistani Actress Meera

Finding alead actress for his upcoming Sufi-drama film Ishq Khuda has been a greatheadache for director Shehzad Rafique. Since the pre production stage of themovie, we have only heard about actresses joining the project and then leavingit on midway for their personal and professional reasons.

Finally withthe 'film hitting its sets' earlier this month, the director Shehzad Rafiquesort out the big actress issue by signing the sizzling Arabian actress 'WiamDahmani'.

ReplacingZara Sheikh; who by the way left project citing her mother's illness as thereason, Wiam Dahmani is not only in Pakistan these days to get her workrecorded but has also quickly developed a unique love for the country andespecially its food.

In a recentchit-chat with Galaxy Lollywood, the charming actress talked about 'Pakistan,her love for films and much more'. But before moving onto the interview, let metell you one thing, Wiam not only has a little bit command on Urdu but has alsokept a great eye on the issues related to Pakistani film industry.

Q: So Wiam, let me start by askingyou about the treatment you are getting these days in Pakistan. We know you arecurrently in some 'Wadi' for the shooting, tell me more about this Wadi andhow's your experience overall there?

Well,Pakistan Zabardast!! (Laughs), everything is nice and we are shooting in thisbeautiful village named 'Waadi-e-Soon', I am enjoying how cooperative, howcomforting everyone is here.

Besidesshooting I am actually trying to consume the environment here, being friendlywith people and it's all helping me out in portraying my character. So myexperience here has been really good so far.

Q: Moving on to the real reason youare these days in Pakistan. We mainly know you as a singer mostly and that toobecause of your recent association with Pakistani band 'Suroor'. How did youactually end up signing Ishq Khuda. How Shehzad (director) convinced you?

It's alwaysabout the script, your co-stars and the team you are going to work with. WhenShehzad approached me he said and he still says this sometimes during theshooting that 'Oh my God', you are so into Kulsoom"—'Kulsoom' is the name of mycharacter in the movie by the way'—and he was like you are perfect for thisrole. So once I was convinced, I never looked back.

Q: Tell us what actually your role isin the film, would we be also seeing you performing on some romantic song inthe film, because songs are integral part of Pakistani films and one thing issure that with an amazing music team that Shehzad has on board, the music isgoing to be a blast. So should we expect something really special?

Haan.. Haanbilkul, you see music; especially in Lollywood and Bollywood stands for almost60% success of the film. One thing that I recently discovered about Shehzad isthat he is a huge music fan himself, we have got quite big names in the film,Rahat is there, and Shazia Manzoor has few songs in the movie too. I amactually performing on one of Rahat's songs, so hopefully it will be a goodtreat for fans.

About therole, I am actually playing a full modern Punjabi girl named Kulsoom, it's beenquite an interesting experience for me, also in the sense that it is the firsttime I am playing the role of some Punjabi girl. 'Meera ji' is in the film,Ahsan Khan is here and then of course the superstar Shaan, so it's all amazingbeing one amongst all of them.

Q: Ishq Khuda must be an importantproject for you also in the sense that you are making your film debut throughit. How enjoyable and different you found film from singing or hosting shows oreven doing television serials?

Well actingis acting and it becomes more difficult when it's a film. Professionallyspeaking, I am no strange to the 35 mm cinematic camera because I already shottwo of my music videos on the same scale with Indian directors. So it's notsomething weird for me but 'Bilkul' it is different when you are doing afeature film, a film is always huge when it comes to the work level butMashaAllah 'Shehzad sahib' is such a professional director that his supportmade it all very easy.

Q: Shehzad Rafique is known for hisquality work in the film industry, how is your experience so far working withhim?

As adirector I see him bilkul perfectionist. He just doesn't take a shot and moveson until and unless it's the one that he had already perceived in mind. Hekeeps watching the scene millions of times and he is not like, 'Ok, let's skipto next shot', No! He makes sure that whatever he has captured is the best hecould get. And also he is always guiding about the scenes, movements and all.For example if I am doing a romantic shot, so he says 'Ok you remember thatscene from that particular movie' and it always helps. He is quite strict letme tell you (laughs), but in a good way because even he knows that being harshon actors might end up in artist losing the concentration and that is nevergood.

Q: Ok Wiam, you have worked quite abit with the 'sub-continental entertainment industry', even before Ishq Khuda.Having a completely different background, how different or difficult it was tocome into a hugely different atmosphere and get adjusted in it, keeping in mindthe language barriers, the cultural ones and all that. How you cope up withsuch factors?

Well itwasn't really difficult for me also because I am a movie loving person, I am socrazy about movies that I have watched all kind of films, Filipino, Italian,French, English, Urdu, Tamil and literally in every language, I have even seenSalakhain, Muhabbatan Sachiyan and twenty to forty other Pakistani films fromindustry's 'golden age', because you know when an artist is indirectly in touchwith a particular culture; be it through watching films or anything, he or shegets to learn many things. Just take the 'Misaal' (Example) of small facialexpression for word 'Yes', it would be different in Pakistani films, completelydifferent in Hollywood films and so on. So films in a sense teach you manythings and that's been the reason it didn't create much of a problem for me.

There aremany actors working in Bollywood who know nothing about Urdu or Hindi but stillthey are hit and doing some really good work there, Katrina Kaif is one of themand also the Canadian girl in Mahesh Bhatt's recently released film BloodMoney, so it isn't a big deal and at the end you have the best solution'dubbing' (laughs), so no big deal.

Q: From whatever you talked it caneasily be derived that you have done your study on Pakistan film Industry. Itmust have been in your knowledge that the industry is in its bad patch and goodfilms aren't really being produced as often as in India or Iran or any otherestablished industry. How you see yourself making a debut in such anenvironment.

Let me tellyou one thing, I did a lot of research on Pakistani industry before cominghere. What I feel is that Pakistani people are really thirsty for entertainment.This is an upside for filmmakers here that they have a huge market that has athirst for good films, 'tau' why not produce some films… 'Kyun Nahin'.

I tell yousomething, I give Lollywood five years from here and Insha'Allah it will riseand you will see money here, you will prosperity and you will see it competingwith other international industries. In fact I already heard about a bigproduction film Waar, Shaan is doing a great job there then there is Ishq Khudacoming up, a completely different film, the camera, the lighting, the strongstory it has, so it's all going in the right direction.

Q: Ok now while I am in the phase ofwrapping this interview up, tell me keeping in mind your experience inPakistan, are we going to see you more involved in Pakistani entertainmentindustry in future, be it films, TV or even singing?

I am sohappy to be in Pakistan, they have a rich culture, very simple people and Ilove the food here. Besides Ishq Khuda I am involved in some other projects butI seriously don't mind, 'Shehzad Sahab' also asked me the same thing that 'Wiam, would you return and work again in Pakistan after you do a film in otherindustries and become hit'? And I said 'haan Kyun Naheen'? If my co-star willbe a good actor if the script would be good, then of course yes!

Interview was conducted by editor Galaxy Lollywood "Aayan Mirza"

Pictures from the on location shoot of Ishq Khuda