Making a statement appears to come naturally to Pakistani American filmmaker Iram Parveen Bilal. Sporting images of four of Pakistan’s late women icons at the back of her gown (former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, human rights lawyer, and social activist Asma Jahangir, social activist Perween Rahman and popular social media star and women’s rights activist Qandeel Baloch), Iram was the cynosure of all eyes at the world premiere of her new feature film Wakhri (One of a Kind) at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah. It was as though the four ladies had Iram’s back.
One of the young, new-wave Pakistani filmmakers, Iram has been challenging orthodoxy, patriarchy, and gender-based discrimination through her films (Josh: Independence Through Unity was screened at the 14th Mumbai Film Festival, I’ll Meet You There was at SXSW festival but banned on its release in Pakistan) as well as on-ground activism. She also initiated Qalambaaz, a platform that provides mentorship to screenplay writers.
Wakhri is inspired by the life of 26-year-old Baloch, often described as Kim Kardashian of Pakistan. She was murdered by her brother in 2016 for bringing disrepute to the family because of her “bold ways” that went against the “societal norms”. However, Iram’s protagonist, schoolteacher, and single mother Noor Malik (Faryal Mehmood), while confronting the severe challenges of becoming a viral sensation, doesn’t have to face as baleful an end as Baloch for her alter-ego and secret identity—Wakhri—getting revealed to the world. Gulshan Majeed plays her queer best friend and ally Gucchi.
The film was at Locarno’s Open Doors lab and Cinefondation’s prestigious L’Atelier programme at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
A big fan of Shah Rukh Khan, Iram has in turn inspired Bollywood in an ingenious way. Sriram Raghavan decided to call his protagonist in Agent Vinod, played by Kareena Kapoor, by her name.
Iram spoke to Cinema Express in Jeddah. Excerpts from an expansive interview on the eve of the release of Wakhri on January 5.
What did Qandeel Baloch mean to you and women in Pakistan?
I envied Qandeel’s guts. I was in awe of her courage. One may or may not have agreed with her message or opinions, but one couldn’t deny her unapologetic chutzpah. She openly challenged the forces you don’t challenge in Pakistan and caught everyone’s attention. I think that is why her killing felt so personal. It felt like it was a signal to brave women everywhere to shut up, to be silent. In taking her down, they took a piece of us down too. I think that’s part of what made her a feminist icon. Sadly though, this also reflects what patriarchy does to pit women against other women, because I feel she became a bigger icon for women in her death than in her life. When she was alive, I witnessed a lot of women hating on her.
How did her persona tie up with what you like to communicate through your films?
I love showcasing characters who ask “Why not” and who challenge the boxes, rules, and labels. Qandeel’s spirit was the perfect segue into showcasing not just a brave, marginalized group of characters but also the collective monster that we have created through social media, draining empathy and empowering mass rage with every faceless click and comment.
Did the Wakhri idea strike you at the time of her death? What was the approach you decided to take in fictionalizing the character?
The screenplay of Wakhri was a slow evolution. I write at least 15-20 drafts of my scripts, if not more. I couldn’t stop thinking of Qandeel after she was killed, and I had just learned about her two weeks before her death. I started to unpack why I was so troubled by it and knew that I had to make something in reaction. It was very clear right off the bat that I didn’t want to make a film that was about her life as I wasn’t interested in glorifying an honor killing on the big screen. (And might I add, I think we lost a lot of potential Western financing and European grants because of that decision.) Also, I wanted to fictionalize the character while still taking huge inspiration from who she was, so that we could tackle more than just her story. Wakhri is about so much more, and it highlights themes beyond that single story. It is an opportunity to give an even bigger tribute to Qandeel by elevating the story to important themes and topics.
What has the journey of the film been like, from the inception to its forthcoming release?
When this idea came to me, I mentioned it to Abid Aziz Merchant, an art collector and exhibitor, one of the biggest cinephiles I knew, who apparently was a fan of my films. He agreed to collaborate on it and asked me to start writing the script. He came on as the lead producer along with me. We submitted it to Locarno’s Open Doors in 2018, that was spotlighting Pakistani films. We got accepted and were one of two projects in development that year to represent Pakistan. The other one was Saim Sadiq’s film that went on to become Joyland. However, we paused and filmed I’ll Meet You There, that was financed and ready to go first. Abid joined me as an executive producer on that.
In the meanwhile, Georges Goldenstern of the prestigious Cannes Cinefondation, who’d seen my past work, invited me to apply to the Cannes official talent development program. We applied, got accepted and in 2019, Abid and I headed to Cannes looking for money and co-producers.
We always knew that this film was meant for the Pakistani masses, and not the festival circuit. That focus guided us to where we found our money, our support and all our strategic decisions. Packed theatres were the goal and maximum netizen viewing. Along the way, we attached celebrated producer Apoorva Bakshi as our final producer, who played a critical role in the script development and financing. We then raised the rest of the private financing and went off to shoot in Pakistan in late 2022.
What went behind the casting of the lead actors?
Our casting directors Sana Jafri and Shehzad Ghias helped us find the giant cast of Wakhri, from real influencers to theatre actors to choreographers. Faryal Mehmood, who plays the titular role of Noor and Wakhri, herself had a backstory of social media trolling and excessive hate. We needed someone new, brave, and bold to do Wakhri and she seemed to be the only one in Pakistan who could do justice to this character. Faryal had made a name for herself in the Pakistani TV industry but was yet to be launched in a lead role in a film. Faryal lost herself in the characters and squeezed everything out of the screenplay and elevated it.
Her friend Gucchi was played by Gulshan Majeed, whose main claim to fame had been choreography and styling and a few bit parts in web series. After watching one video audition, I flew down to Lahore to meet him in person and asked him to do an item number for me 3 minutes into the audition. He was nervous, vulnerable, and downright fabulous. I cannot wait for audiences to get lost in his effortless charm and watch his star rise.
Why did you pick the Red Sea International Film Festival for the premiere?
It worked with our calendar of release, in terms of buzz in the region, and frankly we wanted to empower a regional festival with the opportunity to be discoverers and create careers. Also, playing a feminist film in Saudi Arabia was exactly the kind of subversive activism that our Wakhri would do, so it felt like the right move. The programmers at Red Sea showed rare courage in taking this film on.
The new Pakistani cinema is getting pushed by people like you who have one foot at home and one in the West…
I do agree that the quality of Pakistani cinema is getting affected positively by global training and access to craft and content. It is also getting affected by the world cinema infrastructure taking more interest in the region. From grants to festivals to streamers, there’s heightened intrigue in the stories from this region, like never before.
There’s also the impact of democratization of cinema owing to technology, private equity financing structures and distribution, which makes the middle-class talent access the dream of being filmmakers.
Having said that, the infrastructure is sputtering along due to political instability; so, this supply chain of internationally recognized Pakistani films is riding on the backs of just ten to twenty filmmakers who are committed to their craft. Almost all of them are independent, are not really linked to the local infrastructure and thereby the long-term future of Pakistani cinema remains perilous in my opinion. Decades of maligning cinema, shutting down cinemas, banning foreign content has affected what we see today and now we are stuck with a chicken and egg issue of not enough films versus not enough screens and thereby a ceiling as to the budgets we can have for films. Even if we can figure all that out, we then must face the socio-eco-political instability that prevents the breathing room we need to create the strong legs for a sustained “revival”. I strongly believe that all types of films need to be made and released, with minimal censorship, to burgeon a healthy cinema going audience, with no bans on international content. But frankly, that seems like an unlikely hope.
How wide is the release?
We have a nationwide release, on 46 screens and 55 cinemas. That’s a huge accomplishment, especially for a small independent film. Most importantly, we are releasing in Qandeel’s hometown of Multan. We are screening in cities in Punjab, where the message of empowerment is much needed for women and hope that young girls and women and allies come to watch and support it.
What kind of a response are you expecting?
Honestly, I am bracing myself for all sorts of reactions and also trying the impossible task of detaching myself. I really do feel Wakhri is for the people. A filmmaker friend recently said that we forget that half the film is the audience…I loved that! We could control the content, and we tried our best, the rest is not in our control. Our audience is undoubtedly the true queen.
