Director of the anticipated crime thriller ‘Kukri’, Ali Sajjad Shah aka Abu Aleeha, sat down for an interview with Geo Digital, where he opened up about his decision to cast actor Yasir Hussain for the film, revealing that initially people thought he was making a mistake with casting the actor:
“They said I am committing suicide and Yasir can’t pull off this character, I received many calls from the people associated with our industry; however, the statements changed when the poster came out, and the very same people spoke to me again and said ‘Tum ne ye kiya bana diya hai!’”
He further praised the ‘Badshah Begum’ actor for being one of the finest in the industry:
“I have seen Yasir’s best work in the theatre, I know how far I can go with him. People have seen his work in dramas but that’s not his finest work.”
Speaking on how Aleeha and Hussain built up the notorious serial killer Javed Iqbal’s character, who reportedly murdered and raped more than a 100 boys in Lahore giving himself up to the police, the director said that he and Hussain researched to get the accent right:
“I took Yasir to many chai dhabbay in Androon–e –Lahore. There, I observed local people chatting in different Punjabi accents. I used to record their conversations and that’s how we picked one of the accents for Javed Iqbal. Later, Yasir practised it.”
Aleeha also talked about why he had chosen to work on the serial killer, a topic that had intrigued audiences last year when the film was announced under the name ‘Javed Iqbal’. The ‘Taxali Gate’ director cited his stint working as a crime news reporter for ten years, which was when he heard about Javed Iqbal:
“I’ve been working as a crime reporter for a private channel for 10 years. [I remember] a criminal was arrested in Lahore and accused of raping 100 children. It was around 1999 and since then, the character has been stuck in my mind.
“Musharraf Sahab’s take over and Javed Iqbal were the two most sensational stories at that time.
“The case was handed over to the honorary Supreme Court and Javed Iqbal was detained, where he committed suicide.
“I got a copy of the challan after a month, from a lawyer and decided to make a web series on the serial killer but no one took me seriously. Then, I published the first book about his crimes and it got a massive response.
“The second edition I published was about the investigation and the back story of this notorious man; the book came out in eight editions and sold out in six months — which indicated that people are intrigued by the story.
“Then I decided to make a film on Javed Iqbal.”
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