Author: newsdesk

  • Award-winning Pakistani short film ‘One Last Shot’ enthrals viewers worldwide

    Award-winning Pakistani short film ‘One Last Shot’ enthrals viewers worldwide

    The demand for new and dynamic content in the entertainment industry continues to grow relentlessly mainly caused by the easy access and rise of online streaming platforms. This has consequently led to an increase in the amount of Film/TV Series productions on a global spectrum.

    As the popularity of the entertainment industry continues to grow and film/TV series are now more in demand than ever before in the past, film festivals have become a vital and an indispensable platform for content acquisition for Broadcast Networks and Streaming platforms. They have also become the flag bearer of giving rise and recognition to emerging talent, providing an opportunity for them to compete against up and coming and seasoned filmmakers worldwide.

    In the competitive and zealous International Film Festivals Circuit consisting of thousands of films from many different parts of the world, actor/filmmaker Saram Jaffery from Lahore, Pakistan has made waves in the industry and put Pakistan on the map by winning multiple awards for his acclaimed short film One Last Shot in the US at New York Film Awards 2020, Los Angeles Film Awards 2020 for Best Acting, Best Drama and Best Narrative.

    The film has also won Best Canadian Short Film and Viewers Choice Award at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival and Best Romantic Drama in India at Calcutta International Cult Film Festival and in Italy at Oniros Film Awards.

    Competing against a vast list of many acclaimed film submissions worldwide, One Last Shot is based on a struggling musician’s life who comes from a South Asian background.

    The film is inspired by real life stories where Saram Jaffery essays the lead role of a struggling musician who is trying to make ends meet and makes bad choices along the way, which puts his relationship with his loved ones in jeopardy.

    One Last Shot was a debut for Aniqa Khwaja, the female lead in the film. The Canadian-based Pakistani model has done theatre work in the past. However, this was her first film.

    Zuhair Raza Jaffery played the antagonist in the film. He is a renowned veteran Pakistani actor who has appeared in countless dramas during the 80s and 90s. His most popular work includes ‘Ainak Wala Jinn’ and ‘Zameen’.

    Jaffery has always been immensely passionate about acting and filmmaking and embarked on his acting journey quite early. He was a child star and appeared in a few drama serials on PTV. From there his passion grew and he ventured to theatre.

    He got his formal training from Humber College Toronto while he continued to appear in several independent short films and theatre. In 2018, Jaffery got his first commercial break with Pakistani feature film ‘Na Band Na Baraati’.

    One Last Shot marks Saram Jaffery’s first leading role and also his digital debut in the streaming platform market. The film is available to watch in the USA and UK on Amazon Prime Video.

    Jaffery is currently working on a web series that revolves around immigrants’ issues and challenges and another feature film that focuses on mental health issues.

    ‘One Last Shot’ has given the Pakistani film industry notable exposure globally, however Saram wants to continue contributing towards introducing Pakistani Cinema and to build a positive image of the country through the medium of art.

    Check out the trailer here:

  • PM to meet representative committee of missing persons in March: Mazari

    PM to meet representative committee of missing persons in March: Mazari

    Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would meet a three-member representative committee of the missing persons who have been staging a sit-in in Islamabad for more than a week.

    The families of the Baloch missing persons, who have been raising their voice for the recovery of their loved ones for decades, are staging a sit-in in the federal capital against the enforced disappearances.

    On Saturday, the human rights minister visited the protest camp and assured that their reservations will be relayed to the prime minister.

    “On instructions from the PM, Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari met with the missing persons’ families this afternoon,” said a statement shared by Mazari on her Twitter account.

    According to the statement, Mazari told them that the PM wanted them to “end their dharna”.

    “He [PM] would meet a three-member representative committee from amongst them in March and Dr Mazari would arrange this meeting,” the statement said, adding that the families have been asked to “hand over the list of their missing persons to Dr Mazari so that their status could be ascertained and conveyed to the PM before the meeting with the families’ representatives”.

    “The families requested that priority be given to the missing persons of the 13 families present at the dharna,” the statement added.

    Earlier this week, a meeting of the federal cabinet had expressed concern over the longstanding issue of missing persons and directed the authorities concerned to make prompt legislation in the parliament to ensure that there was no missing person in the present government.

    Earlier this week, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice President Maryam Nawaz visited the camp of the Baloch families. At the time, she urged the army chief and Inter-Services Intelligence chief to play their role to address the issue.

    She criticised the government for not reaching out to the protesters, saying that it was the duty of the state to take care of its citizens.

    A bill seeking criminalisation of enforced disappearances was proposed by the Human Rights Ministry in 2018. It was sent to the Ministry of Law, but the ministry has yet to clear the proposed legislation despite the passage of a considerable amount of time.

  • Scientists develop clone of endangered black-footed ferret

    Scientists develop clone of endangered black-footed ferret

    The scientists have cloned the first endangered species, a black-footed ferret duplicated from the genes of an animal that died over 30 years ago.

    The scientists have named the slinky predators Elizabeth Ann. These species look cute, but they are quite wild.

    Elizabeth Ann was born and raised at a Fish and Wildlife breeding facility in Colorado.

    She is a copy of a ferret named Willa who died in 1988, and its remains where frozen in the early days of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology.

    Cloning is a promising technology to bring back extinct or endangered species such as the passenger pigeon. Last years in Texas, scientists have cloned an endangered Mongolian wild horse in the United States.

    “Biotechnology and genomic data can make a difference on the ground with conservation efforts,” said Ben Novak, lead scientist at biotechnology-focused conservation nonprofit that coordinated the ferret and horse clonings.

    Scientists around the world gathered the population for a captive, breeding program that has released thousands of ferrets on many sites in the United States (US), Canada and Mexico since the 1990s.

    Cloning makes a new plant or animal by copying the genes of an existing animal. Texas-based Viagen, a company that clones pet cats for $35,000 and dogs for $50,000, cloned a Przewalski’s horse, a wild horse species from Mongolia born last summer.

  • JUI-F lawmaker accused of marrying minor girl

    JUI-F lawmaker accused of marrying minor girl

    Chitral police have started an investigation after reports of a marriage between Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Salahuddin Ayyubi, who is a National Assembly lawmaker hailing from Balochistan, and a 14-year-old girl from Chitral, reported Jang.

    On Feb 18, a local organisation, Anjuman Dawat-o-Azeemat, requested police to conduct an inquiry into whether the girl had attained the marriageable age of 18, and if not, take action against all those responsible under the Prevention of Child Marriage Act, reported Dawn.

    Chitral police station SHO Inspector Sajjad Ahmed said that the family of the girl is not in town yet, but the police will start an investigation into these reports once they come back to Chitral.

    According to reports, the girl is a student of a government school in Jughoor and her date of birth is recorded as Oct 28, 2006. And if the record is accurate, then the girl is considered a minor in Pakistan and such marriages are criminalised.

    According to police, the father of the girl denied the reports of the marriage and even signed an affidavit to this effect.

  • Teaser of Mahira Khan’s first production ‘Baarwan Khiladi’ is out

    Mahira Khan took to her Instagram to share the teaser of her first production-project, Baarwan Khiladi, with the caption ‘Bismillah’, and tagged the cast and crew of the project in the post.

    The teaser suggests that Baarwan Khiladi is a cricket themed web-series. It will be released on Pakistan’s leading on-demand video streaming platform Tapmad.

    Earlier, in an interview with Gulf News, Mahira opened up about trying her hand at production.

    She said that the reason why she is getting into production is because it is something she always wanted.

    “To be honest, I’ve always been inclined to getting behind the camera,” she said.

    The series has been written by Shahid Dogar and directed by Adnan Sarwar, the man behind Motorcycle Girl. The cast of the web-series includes Danyal Zafar, Shahveer Jafry and Kinza Hashmi, Saba Faisal, Sarmad Khoosat and Khaqan Shahnawaz.

    Baarwaan Khiladi has reportedly been shot inside the Walled City of Lahore and Shahveer in an Instagram story revealed that shooting lasted a month and a half. While a release date has not yet been announced, the series will stream on Tapmad, a South Asian streaming service.

  • By-polls: Maryam shares videos of vote theft as PML-N claims victory on three seats

    By-polls: Maryam shares videos of vote theft as PML-N claims victory on three seats

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz shared videos on her Twitter handle, accusing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers of stealing ballot papers during the Wazirabad (PP-51) by-polls.

    The PML-N vice president alleged that her party supporters nabbed the ruling party workers trying to sneak out with ballot boxes. Maryam shared a number of videos seemingly showing unidentified persons carrying white bags and surrounded by enraged PML-N workers.

    “PTI people caught red-handed stealing bags full of votes by PMLN MPA Adil Chatta and Ataa Tarar. [The] seal was also broken. Police was a part of the plan to steal votes for PTI,” the vice president wrote on her handle.

    According to PML-N’s Ataa Tarar, the presiding officer stationed at the Virtual University polling station was allegedly casting fake votes. Tarar claimed the votes that were cast in the men’s section of the polling station were 600, but upon examination by the polling agent of the PML-N, 852 votes were found.

    In another video shared by the PML-N leader, a man could be seen sitting in a car with a white bag which is described by Maryam a bag of votes. “He was caught red-handed. PML-N workers did not allow him to escape. Rangers also present,” Maryam said in another tweet.

    Subsequently, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) took notice of the videos shared by the PML-N leader and summoned a report from the returning officer. The ECP later withheld the results over irregularities in polling.

    By-elections were held in four constituencies on Friday: two in Punjab and two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the unofficial results, PML-N emerged victorious in Daska, Gujranwala and Nowshera (PK-63), whereas a PTI candidate was leading on Kurram (NA-45) seat.

    According to preliminary results obtained from 213 polling stations, PML-N candidate Nosheen Iftikhar was in the lead with 61,571 votes in NA-75 Sialkot, while the PTI candidate Ali Asjad Khan had obtained 55,872 votes. Maryam Nawaz claimed victory on the Daska seat. In Daska, at least two people –PML-N and PTI supporters — were killed as a result of firing on a polling station.

    In Wazirabad, PML-N’s Begum Talat Shaukat bagged 53,903 votes, while PTI’s Chaudhry Yousuf stood runner-up with 48,484 votes. Wazirabad’s PP-51 fell vacant after PML-N MPA Shaukat Manzoor Cheema died on June 3, 2020.

    In Nowshera, PML-N candidate Ikhtiar Wali, backed by the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement, won the by-election by securing 21,112 votes against his rival candidate Mian Umer Kakakhel of the PTI, who got 17,023 votes.

    PTI’s Fakharuzzaman Bangash clinched victory after receiving 16,911 votes, while independent candidate Haji Syed Jamal secured 15,560 votes.

  • Zoya Nasir says ‘yes’ to Christian Betzmann

    Zoya Nasir and Christian Betzmann are engaged after the Pakistani actor said “yes” to the German Vlogger. The news of their engagement comes just a few days after Christian announced that he has converted to Islam.

    Read more – Zoya Nasir slams troll for giving Christian Betzmann ‘criminal advice’

    Sharing pictures of himself and Zoya standing on a beach in the Bahamas, Betzmann revealed the big news, saying: “SHE SAID YESSSSS! The best day of my life.”

    “I love you Zoya Nasir,” he added.

    Zoya also shared similar pictures with the caption: “He asked and I said yes. Thank you for being my light in the darkest hours and showing me the true meaning of happiness.”

    “Here’s to a forever with you, my soulmate,” she added.

    Later, in a video posted to her YouTube channel, Zoya shared her friends and family’s reaction to the news. In the video, Zoya video-calls her family and friends including Ushna Shah, Zaid Ali T, Shahveer Jafry, Hajra Yameen and Zara Noor Abbas and reveals the big news to them. Needless to say, all her friends were shocked yet ecstatic over the news of their engagement.

    Zoya and Christian have often made the news with pictures of their trips going viral on social media. The couple is currently in the Bahamas after travelling across the United States in the past couple of months.

    To know how Chris proposed Zoya, check out in the video below:

    https://youtu.be/23ch1JoMp5k
  • Mahira, Deepika Ki Pawri Horahi Hai

    Mahira, Deepika Ki Pawri Horahi Hai









    *|MC:SUBJECT|*

    Hey, Good Morning *|MERGE1|*. It’s February 19th.It’s Friday which is also biryani day in most houses, but the question is with aloo or without?

    It will be cloudy today in Islamabad and Peshawar, and sunny and warm in other major cities.

    Happy Friday!

     

    Laila-The Current 

    Morning Meme

    Ali Sadpara is no more, confirms son

    Addressing a press conference, Sadpara’s son Sajid Sadpara said, “K2 has embraced my father forever. May God give my family the strength to deal with this loss.”

    Read on

    What’s common between Maryam and Altaf Hussain?

    Fawad Chaudhry kehte hain kay he sees a female version of Altaf Hussain in Maryam Nawaz. He made the statement after Maryam warned the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to “get ready for the wrath of the people”.

    Read On

    Suno Chanda 3’: happening or not?
     

    Ramzan’s much-loved comedy show Suno Chanda may not be returning for a third season despite two successful seasons and a demand for a third one.

    Read On

    Why was PM Imran Khan not happy?

    Prime Minister Imran Khan won a Range Rover car worth $72,000 in 1989 for being the International Cricketer of the Year and Australian press wasn’t happy about it. Lekin kyun?

    Read On

    Mahira Khan, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor join the Pawri
     

    Seems like that this pawri is not ending anytime soon. Mahira has also re-created the viral meme and the video has crossed borders as Bollywood stars join in. Check them out.

    Read On

    Missing out on the news?

    Nawaz ko NRO mila tha and the election commission of Pakistan rejects Pervaiz Rasheed’s nomination for a Senate seat. Watch yesterday’s top news stories.
     

    Watch DRF

    Find someone who looks at you the same way our food reviewer Ashar looks at cake.

    On this Day: 19 February 
    Confession Day     

    Today we celebrate Confession Day. On this day, you can get rid of all the worries in your life by confessing how you feel. How many of you need to tell someone something that you just can’t?

    Current Baba’s prediction

    Today you may bump into a random desi auntie so don’t forget to put sar dard ki goli in your bag.
     

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  • Javed Afridi welcomes Esra Bilgiç in Zalmi family

    Turkish actress Esra Bilgiç has joined Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise as brand ambassador.

    This was announced by Peshawar Zalmi owner Javed Afridi in a social media post.

    “WELCOME ESRA BILGIC TO THE ZALMI FAMILY,” he captioned a picture of the Dirilis: Ertugrul actress.

    Earlier, the actress had hinted about the new begginings in a tweet, tagging the Peshawar Zalmi owner and the team’s Twitter handles.

    https://twitter.com/esbilgic/status/1359574689643921409?s=20

    In response, the owner of Peshawar Zalmi’s franchise Afridi also tweeted: “New Beginning” and tagged the Turkish actress.

    Afridi also shared in a tweet that the PZ official anthem, Zalmi Kingdom, will be released tonight with all the ambassadors in it.

    The PSL 6 will kick start from tomorrow at National Stadium Karachi. The first half of the tournament will be played in Karachi while the second half will be played in Lahore at Gaddafi stadium.

  • Model Alyzeh Gabol ties the knot

    Model Alyzeh Gabol ties the knot

    Pakistani model Alyzeh Gabol has officially tied the knot.

    Taking to Instagram, the stunner shared gorgeous photos from the simple yet elegant event.

    The mother-of-one can be seen signing her nikkah papers in one photo whereas in the other photo her husband placed a ring on her left hand.

    “New beginnings. Alhamdullilah,” the caption read.

    While it is currently unknown who the mystery man is, the photos exude couple goals.

    Many people in the industry congratulated the model on her new life as a married woman.

    “Congratulations,” actress Aiman Khan wrote.

    “Awww Congrats,” singer Aima Baig said.

    “Mubarak Mubarak,” singer Yasir Jaswal commented.

    Model Neha Rajpoot wrote, “MA MA.”

    Actress Areeba Habib said, “Bohat Mubarak. Alizay so happy for you.”