'Pak films must give audiences a reason to buy a ticket'

Pakistani actor Zara Noor Abbas believes filmmakers cannot expect audiences to support local cinema simply out of loyalty. Pakistani films, she said, must first give people a reason to spend their money and time at the cinema.

Speaking to The Express Tribune about her upcoming film Sheroes, Abbas said audiences want to be entertained, and filmmakers must repeatedly prove themselves by creating films that offer both enjoyment and confidence in the local industry.

"Supporting Pakistani cinema is a very old statement. If people want to support Pakistani cinema, they should have a reason to do so. People want entertainment," she said.

"If someone has finished eating out and wants to watch something, only then will they go to the cinema. We, as filmmakers, have to prove ourselves again and again."

Abbas plays Saira, a Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) officer, in the film's action-oriented segment Gear Up. The anthology brings together three stories centred on women. Saira's story follows her struggle to work in a male-dominated environment where her abilities are repeatedly questioned.

"The Sindh Police has a specialised department called the Bomb Disposal Unit, which exists within police forces across the country. I play Saira, a BDU officer, and the story is about her struggle as a woman in a male-dominated workplace," she said.

"I think Saira is the first woman bomb disposal officer in her office. She faces gender discrimination and is given a task that nobody believes she can accomplish. That is essentially the premise of the story."

Abbas said the character's strength and resilience felt familiar to her.

"I found Saira quite similar to me in terms of her strength and resilience. As actors, we immerse ourselves in different characters. Whenever I talk about a character, I feel as if it is almost like a possession a different entity enters my body and I become that person," she said.

Playing a BDU officer also required Abbas to learn technical police terminology.

"The dialogue delivery was challenging because television usually allows more pauses and emotional dialogue, whereas this character had a lot of technical terminology," she said.

"There were terms about cordoning off an area, setting a perimeter and calculating the radius. The police and military have their own coded language, so understanding it, delivering it naturally and speaking quickly was difficult."

She credited writer Hashim Nadeem's script and dialogues for helping her manage the challenge.

Most scenes were shot on specially created sets, with little time for preparation.

"We created sets and did everything there. We didn't have much time for preparation because we had to shoot the project quite quickly. We actually shot it in January this year."

Sheroes marks Abbas' return to cinema after almost seven years. She made her film debut in 2019 with Wajahat Rauf's Chhalawa and appeared in Asim Raza's Parey Hut Love the same year. Sheroes is her third film.

She said local filmmakers should not ask audiences to watch Pakistani films simply because they are Pakistani. Instead, they must create franchises and characters that make people confident about spending money on local productions.

"When Spider-Man comes out, people rush to watch it. Some even dress up like Spider-Man because the character has already created its own niche. Spider-Man has a huge franchise behind it through Marvel," she said.

"We need to build those franchises and create confidence among audiences that if they are spending Rs1,500 or Rs2,000 on a ticket, they will get something enjoyable in return."

For Pakistani filmmakers, she believes the immediate task is to encourage audiences to give new films a chance.