Did you know? Shaan turns screenwriter for action-packed, romantic film

The poster boy, in fact, poster man of Pakistani cinema has his ways of surprising the audience. If changing gears by taking up the director’s chair in his production of Arth2 was not enough to get your attention, the actor is now all set to turn screenwriter for a feature film.

What is being termed as ‘love action packed film’ is scheduled to enter the production phase this year in November, whereas the film is slated for a 2015 release.

The untitled project will be produced under the banner of Ad-filmmaker Asadul Haq’s company ‘SHINY TOY GUNS’ and will be directed by Asad himself. This will also mark Asad’s debut as a feature filmmaker.

For Shaan, however, the interest in screenwriting is a part of extending his father’s legacy.

“Writing has been our family tradition. My father Riaz Shahid has written great films like Zarqa, Yeh Amaan, Shaheed, Susraal & Badnaam. I always enjoyed and had the passion for story-telling but it was very difficult for me to write as I was scared of not coming up to the standards set by my father,” said Shaan in a statement issued by ‘SHINY TOY GUNS’.

Shaan went on to add that his confidence over storytelling skills has increased over time and since Asad is a great filmmaker, his screenplay would be in safe hands.

“We both have tremendous respect for each other’s works and Asad exactly knows what he wants as a director. We had fun reading sessions and he fell in love with the story the moment I narrated it to him.”

Asad, on the other hand, is both excited and nervous about the switch to feature length filmmaking from the short and sweet ad-films.

“After doing tv commercials for so many years, you are always thinking about the big switch,” said Asad in the statement. “Will it happen now, later or never? Last year, I started thinking what if I was to direct what story would I like to tell.Will I go indie, will I lean towards action or will I do something romantic and then I met Shaan Shahid one evening and it all came together.”

The project will be the first co-production of ‘SHINY TOY GUNS’ and ‘Riaz Shahid Films’.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2014.

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