‘Zindagi Tamasha’ bags half a million views within its first 10 days of release

The Pakistani film harboured with controversy is making waves since its digital release
Entertainment Desk | August 14, 2023

Initially set to release in January 2020, Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha is known to have undergone many delays. However, after a long-drawn-out fight for an official release, Khoosat chose to upload the entire film onto Youtube for audiences to stream for free. Having only just released earlier this month, the Zindagi Tamasha is seen to be doing reasonably well after acquiring more than five hundred thousand views just within its initial days.

The director-producer took to Instagram to express his gratitude for the success of the film, writing: “Half a million views and counting! It’s surreal to think about the setbacks Zindagi Tamasha faced, but the outpouring support and the love from you all is truly heartwarming. A very happy Independence Day to you all for you have made it possible for us to liberate ‘Zindagi Tamasha’ and have uplifted it! Every single view is testament to humanity’s irrepressible desire to express. After all, life imitates art. Thank you for embracing Zindagi Tamasha!”

Known to have been awarded the Kim Ji-Seok award at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival, the film has been subject to high levels of political and religious controversy time and again when the Pakistani government claimed for it to portray anti-Islamic content. Due to the Council of Islamic Ideology’s decisions, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the reality of Khoosat himself receiving multiple death threats for his work, the release of the film kept being pushed back.

Finally, however, the film’s rather un-theatrical release onto platforms like Youtube – and Vimeo for the director’s cut – has allowed audiences to engage with the artwork and judge for themselves. In the description of the video release, Sarmad writes, “We have decided to share our much-awaited, award-winning film ‘Zindagi Tamasha’ with our audiences directly. It is now yours. And in that spirit – while the film is uploaded for free on Youtube – we are giving our amazing audiences a platform to send in their support directly for the film (in the absence of a theatrical or OTT release). "

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