Fawad Khan rarely makes an appearance – on social media or otherwise (unless it’s for Pepsi) – but when he does it has to be for something big. And this time the actor made a surprise social media appearance to answer the burning question we’ve all been asking: when is The Legend of Maula Jatt revealing?
And turns out the rumours have been true all along – the film is expected to hit the screens on Eid ul Fitr 2020 as per Fawad and the film’s producer Ammara Hikmat. Not only that, Fawad gave his fans a double treat by sharing a picture from his first day of the shoot for the film.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B83yFBpAwN7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B83xzzEBU22/
The film has been directed by Bilal Lashari and also starres Hamza Ali Abbasi, Mahira Khan, Humaima Malick and Gohar Rasheed among others. The film has been touted as Pakistan’s most expensive production to date.
It has been a long wait but the makers of The Legend of Maula Jatt have finally managed to sort out the film’s legal battles and clear the path for its release.
Reports had revealed that Sarwar Bhatti who had filed a case against the film for copyright infringement has withdrawn his case and has reached an agreement with the makers.
Speaking to a private news outlet Bhatti had said “Ammara [producer] and Bilal Lashari [director] are like my children. Someone misguided them but all kids tend to make mistakes and therefore I am willing to put everything behind me. I am doing this for their welfare, for the revival of cinema and to give the much-needed boost to Pakistan’s film industry. I will no longer be a hurdle in the release of The Legend of Maula Jatt.”
Bhatti had claimed that Maula Jatt was his property and had filed an application for a stay order to prevent the director from using the character, name and dialogues and asked the court to stop the film from being released.
Meanwhile, it is likely that it will be Fawad vs Fawad at the box-office this Eid ul Fitr because Fawad’s other project Money Back Guarantee is also scheduled to release on Eid-ul-Fitr along with Urwa Hocane and Farhan Saeed’s Tich Button.
Watch the first look of The Legend of Maula Jatt here:
A man, reportedly a dentist, allegedly sold ice (methamphetamine) to students at a government school in Jhelum.
According to the Jhelum DPO, “We seized the drugs from the bags of two students of grade six. When we questioned the students, they told that they had gotten the drugs from a dentist.”
The DPO added that an investigation was instantly conducted into the matter after which the dental clinic was raided. While the doctor managed to escape, an employee working at the clinic was arrested and taken into custody.
As per reports, three packets of ice have been seized from the clinic.
A case has been registered and further investigations are underway.
It was a dream come true for Saeed Ullah, who came to Karachi from Quetta to meet his favorite Peshawar Zalmi players on Friday during Pakistan Super League (PSL) match.
While talking to the media he said, “I feel as if I am dreaming. I am so happy.” Saeed was invited from Quetta to meet his favourite players of the team Peshawar Zalmi at the National Stadium in Karachi. The Kings won the match but for the differently-abled fan who couldn’t walk, it was an experience of a lifetime.
He thanked Zalmi owner Javed Afridi for inviting him all the way to Karachi so he could meet his favourite stars. “Our fans live in our hearts and these special fans are really close to our hearts,” said Afridi. “Zalmi’s name and fame are all because of their [fans] prayers.”
Following the opening ceremony of the fifth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), Pakistanis found a new person to hate on: Ahmed Godil. The Karachi-based VJ opened the opening ceremony of the PSL 5 and drew irk and widespread criticism from audiences for his performance on stage.
The backlash and trolling became so unbearable that the next morning, Godil made several TV appearances in which he appealed to the audiences to spare him, explaining that he wasn’t even the host of the show – Fakhre Alam was. He also requested the audience to leave his mother and sisters out of this.
In his latest post, Godil has announced that he is no longer part of the PSL or PCB. In a five-minute video, the host explained that PCB let him go following the trolling and his appearances on multiple media channels.
Godil also expressed his frustration with the PCB for their mismanagement and not supporting him amidst the trolling. He said that he gave the organisation his everything and in return, they fired him.
“I was just about to get in the car and leave for the stadium around 12 pm when I received a call from the PSL management to inform me that my services are no longer needed,” said a visibly emotional Godil in the video, adding that all he did was try to save the opening ceremony from failing without a script in hand or any preparation.
Earlier, while speaking a private news channel, Godil had remarked that the opening ceremony of PSL 2020 was a “very poorly managed show”.
“I was told to come to the stage for the pre-show as they [organisers] said the audience was bored since 4:30 pm,” he said, iterating that he was not the host of the event.
When Shoaib Akhtar, who was also on the show, commented that he didn’t understand the opening ceremony, Godil responded, “It was a very, very poorly managed show.”
Meanwhile, social media began to speculate that Godil was reportedly sacked for revealing that PCB has strictly banned Ali Zafar’s songs from being played in the stadium. Godil responded to the rumours.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B83yXjwpu0x/
Ahmed godil reportedly suspended by #PCB for talking about Ali zafer..
VJ Godil the former host of PSL V Opening Ceremony is suspended by PCB for saying that Ali Zafar anthems should not be played in National Stadium Karachi.#PSLV2020#AhmedGodil#AliZafar
Bilal Ashraf, Imad Wasim and Asim Azhar voiced their support for Godil and requested fans to stop trolling and hating on him.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B813E-slSb0/
Aise tou hum sab khatam kardain gay. Kisi ko behtar honay ka mauka hi nahi daingay. Kyun kay sabar hi nahi hai. Kab seekhain gay hum? Jab khuda na khaasta koi suicide karay ga depression mai aakay because of becoming a national joke? But hey, at least you’ll get your RTs & likes!
I request sports fans to understand that reacting personally to an artist’s freedom to express their art is wrong. professional feedback on MC kaptaan Godil or a artists public performance is our freedom Let’s follow basic stuff Personal attacks are not on. Please stop https://t.co/jLX8kZ3fh9
To go viral and gain views, TikTok users have started the ‘Skull-Breaker Challenge’ causing people to end up in the hospital with broken bones and fatal injuries.
The challenge begins with three people standing alongside one another and in a row, the middle person jumps while the other two kick his/her legs out from under causing a dangerous fall.
Falling like this is life-threatening and can cause paralysis and even death as severe head trauma could lead to serious internal bleeding in the brain.
Meanwhile, TikTok does not allow content that is harmful. The community guidelines for the app state: “We do not promote participation in activities that could lead to harm. We also do not permit users to encourage others to take part in dangerous activities. We do not allow content that promotes self-harm or suicide, but we do allow our users to share their experiences in order to raise awareness about these issues.”
However, TikTok has not officially responded to this matter.
The eighth edition of the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) is taking place this weekend. It is refreshing to see cultural events like the LLF take place in the country because we are fast becoming a society that doesn’t celebrate culture and critical thinking anymore.
From Orhan Pamuk to William Dalrymple, from Audrey Truschke to Fatima Bhutto, from Omar Shahid Hamid to Vali Nasr, the line-up at the LLF is brilliant. It was good to see on the first day sessions discussing journalist integrity and the poetry of Pashtun poet Rehman Baba.
Pakistanis boast generosity, kindness and hospitality. Yet there is something we are slowly but surely losing – tolerance. When movies like Zindagi Tamasha cannot be screened and Urdu translations of fictional books are not allowed, we should know that there’s something wrong. Neither do we entertain critical thinking nor do we tolerate difference of opinion. Also, we are quite a judgemental lot.
Last month, Fahad Mirza posted a picture of his European holiday with his wife Sarwat Gilani. They were kissing in the picture. Comments on social media under that picture were mostly so negative and vile that Gilani had to ask haters to unfollow her if they hated her so much. Imagine that a picture displaying affection between a husband and wife on social media could lead to such negativity, little wonder then that victims of sexual harassment get the sort of abuse that they do online and offline.
Recently, we saw our parliamentary debates turn rowdy. The level of debates was not just low but downright personal. From Abdul Qadir Patel’s innuendo-laden speech targeting Murad Saeed to Saeed’s own abusive speech about “dogs” ruling Sindh, the level of discourse in parliament was quite disgraceful. If the people’s representatives can stoop so low, what kind of message are we giving to our citizens? No wonder then that peaceful protestors are booked under sedition charges and the prime minister thinks Maulana Fazlur Rehman should be tried for high treason under Article 6 of the constitution.
FIA issued a statement saying that columnist Gul Bukhari will be charged with terrorism and her property confiscated if she doesn’t appear before the agency in Pakistan within 30 days. And this is because the government doesn’t like Bukhari’s tweets. One doesn’t have to agree with Bukhari’s tweets, but since when has criticism become terrorism? This is a country where terrorist Ehsanullah Ehsan escapes and flees to Turkey while the government remains silent except for interior minister’s confirmation – after over a week – but the same wants to regulate social media by asking tech companies to open their offices in Pakistan and share data of users the government thinks are making anti-state state?
Intolerance on social media is at another level. If you support ‘ABC’ party, ‘XYZ’ party’s supporters will call you names we can only hope they never take in front of their families. Difference of opinion is not tolerated anymore – both online and offline. Thus to have literary festivals like the LLF, which celebrate critical thinking and have discussions on culture, arts, poetry and literature, is a blow of fresh air.
Karachi Kings’ Coach Dean Jones won hearts and the internet after a video of him clearing the mess and trash after the match went viral on social media. Jones picked up the mess from the enclosure after his team beat Peshawar Zalmi on Friday at Karachi National Stadium.
#DeanJones@ProfDeano Thank you for the display of such greatness and humbleness and We are proud of you being here and helping us learn being better than we are! This is what we need to learn! https://t.co/6RDEEPC3Om
People are praising the international cricketing star for showing a sense of responsibility towards society. Few other Karachi Kings’ cricketers were also seen in the background picking up the garbage.
Earlier, Jones’ team Karachi Kings was also involved in controversy during the match with Peshawar Zalmi. One of the Kings’ members was spotted using a mobile phone in the players’ dugout area during the match. After this, people started criticising this as ICC rules do not permit the use of a mobile phone during the match.
Jones cleared the air on social media by sharing that the person wasn’t any player but he was the CEO of the team. He said he was doing his job arranging the practice session for the team.
Like in ALL T20 cricket. The manager/CEO is the only one allowed to have a phone. In this case Tariq.. our CEO is doing work. Here he is organising us Practice times for today. Thanks for your concern. https://t.co/UORGtmMlro
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday announced that West Indies cricketing star and Peshawar Zalmi skipper Darren Sammy will be the recipient of the highest civilian award and honorary citizenship of Pakistan for his contribution to the development of cricket in the country.
President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi will confer both the citizenship and award, the ‘Nishane Pakistan’, on March 23, the board said on Twitter.
President of Pakistan Dr @ArifAlvi will confer the highest civilian award and honourary citizenship to Darren Sammy on 23 March for his invaluable contribution to cricket in Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/mn9AiLknB0
The Windies player will be the first cricketer to receive the award.
Following the announcement, Peshawar Zalmi’s franchise owner Javed Afridi said that the recognition of the side’s skipper would encourage other players to provide support.
“When Sammy was supporting Pakistan cricket, he did not do this for obtaining citizenship, but this award is in recognition of his services,” Afridi said, adding it would encourage everyone to support Pakistan cricket.
Meanwhile, Sammy said that his support was in extension for his “love for the country” and that he did not seek any personal gains.
“My love for Pakistan is natural, my contribution for this country is pure. I don’t need a passport to show my love for this country. I didn’t do it for myself it is for my affection with the people and for the love I get from here,” Geo Super quoted Sammy as saying.
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has announced to empower women through the allocation of domestic animals to them, so that they can support their families and earn a livelihood, The News reported.
Addressing the Ehsaas Amdan (income) programme launching ceremony in Layyah on Friday, the premier said the government had decided that women will be given one cow, one buffalo and three goats, so that they could run their households.
Addressing the gathering, he said the government had launched the programme — which he described as “the first of its kind” in Pakistan — to alleviate the sufferings of the poorest members of society. Soon people will get more good news about their wellbeing and country’s prosperity, PM Imran added.
The premier assured the nation that Pakistan’s difficult time was over now, and the country had been put on the right track. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was making efforts for its vision of formation of an Islamic welfare state on the patron of the state of Medina.
The PM said the government was working on different projects to establish an Islamic welfare state. He said neither he was afraid of death nor defeat, and believed in making his best efforts to leave the matter to Allah, whose all decisions would be acceptable to him.
The Lahore Literary Festival at Alhamra was launched on a beautiful day with thoughtfully presented sessions. For what you should be doing on Day Two of the three day event, the founder of The Writing Room, one of Pakistan’s only writing studios that offer creative writing workshops, Mariam Tareen tells us about what sessions you should be attending.
10AM -11AM: HALL 2: Mining Conflict: Writing on Life in a Turbulent World
This session is the best of what LLF has to offer. When else can you expect to see Nigerian writer Oyinkan Braithwaite (author of My Sister the Serial Killer) and Sri Lankan writer Romesh Gunesekera (author of Suncatcher) with our very own Bilal Tanweer (author of The Scatter Here is Too Great) and debut writer Ayesha Baqir (author of Beyond The Fields, a novel set in Southern Punjab) speaking about writing novels today? This stellar foursome is sure to bring some fascinating discussions to the stage about the writing life and the similarities between our turbulent worlds specifically from a shared non-Western viewpoint.
11:15AM-12:15PM: HALL 3: The Modern: Bombay to Karachi: Exploring art and collectorship post-independence
I always try and catch a panel about art at the LLF, and I especially love a panel about the subcontinent’s shared history. Moderated by Salima Hashmi (painter, curator, professor), the panel includes South Asian art specialist and curator Nour Aslam (who was a former head of sales for Bonhams auction house in South Asian art department), artist and art historian Samina Iqbal, and Zehra Jumaboy of the Courtauld Institute, who specializes in contemporary South Asian art. Even if you don’t much about art (like me), you’re bound to learn a lot from these experts.
Lunch Break
For lunch, head to Solli’s Pizza and try any one of their quirkily-named, handmade pizzas – Eat Pray Love, War and Pieces of Pepperoni, and Crazy Rich Asians – for a delicious and comforting meal. Depending on how brightly the sun is shining, get yourself a Cappuccino or a chocolate ice cream from nearby Costra Nostra as a pick-me-up before the next session. But before you head there, make it a point to stop by at the bookstores in Hall 1. The organizers have made sure ALL the books being discussed at the festival are available. If you’re lucky, you can get them signed by your favourites.
1:30PM–2:30PM Book Launch: My Sister, the Serial Killer
After Orhan Pamuk, I think the biggest surprise of the LLF this year was Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite, the Man Booker Prize longlisted author of My Sister, the Serial Killer. “Sibling loyalty comes under pressure in a Lagos-set debut that mixes crime, love story and family saga,” says the Guardian. I feel that Nigerian writing, similar to Pakistani writing, is having a moment. Most importantly, it’s stepping out beyond what is expected of it by a Western audience, and this book is a big part of that. In her own words, “What I see happening is I see people experimenting more, which, you know, I’m really grateful for because I think Nigeria has been known for literary fiction quite a bit. But now we’re seeing a lot more sci-fi. We’re seeing a lot more crime. We’re seeing fantasy. We’re seeing all sorts of things that – not that they weren’t there before, but they weren’t there in these numbers. So it’s definitely an exciting time.”
2:45-3:45PM Hall 1: Book Launch: New Kings of the World
Fatima Bhutto is back again this year with her latest book – New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop, for which she travelled the globe, exploring cultural movements arising from outside the Western world. Reporting from Istanbul, Dubai, Beirut, Lima and Seoul, Bhutto argues that the global dominance of American pop culture has come to an end, overtaken by Bollywood films, Turkish television shows (dizi), and Korean pop music (K-pop). The book is intelligent, thoughtful and entertaining as I am certain this session, moderated by Fatima Arif, will be too.
4-5PM: Bigotry Brigade: Where is India Headed?
Kashmiri writer, Dr. Nitasha Kaul
I usually choose sessions about books to sessions about politics, but I must make an exception here. This panel includes: historian and author Audrey Truschke (she wrote a biography of Aurganzeb) who is very vocal about human rights abuses in contemporary South Asia; Kashmiri novelist Nitasha Kaul (author of Residue and Future Tense); and Iranian-American professor of Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs and author Vali Nasr, whose most recent book, The Dispensable Nation, deals with the implications of the Obama administration’s foreign policy on American strategic interests. (From 2009 to 2011, he was also the foreign policy adviser to President Obama’s administration.)
The sessions end at 5PM and since there is a PSL match in town, it’s best to leave as soon as possible to beat all the traffic. The weather promises to be sunny with patchy clouds and a truly wonderful day for sun and literature.
