Marina Khan is one of the legendary actors of our country, but not many know that she was a co-director with Nadeem Baig behind the successful and much loved Ayegy Baraat series. The actor-cum-director is now back in her directorial seat with ARY Digital’s Pardes, which is currently winning over hearts with its sensitive and brilliant portrayal of a household story.
In a conversation with Hassan Choudary of Something Haute, Marina Khan shared why she decided to direct Pardes and how she approached the heartrending subject of families where men leave home to earn livelihood.
How difficult was it to bring this story on screen?
“I am coming back to direction after eight years; the last thing I did was Tanhaiyaan Naye Silsilay which was in 2012. I had actually written to Nadeem and others, and asked them to give me a soap because it is simpler to do; you just have to play with emotions. Nadeem said that he has the perfect script for me and when I read Pardes, I saw that despite having that saas-bahu story, it has this ‘husband and wife’ bond in it and I thought I will treat and shoot it the same way. I think the location helped a lot and I have great actors to work with,” she said.
Marina Khan and Shaista Lodhi with Hassan Choudary & Aamna Isani
Talking about drama reviews, Marina pointed out that she is happy that people are viewing dramas and pointing out mistakes because it is much needed.
“We view criticism in a bad light; constructive criticism only helps in making things better,” she said.
Talking about the portrayal of different relationships in the drama, Marina explained: “I have tried to add lighthearted elements in the story through Asim. His character was written much darker but I added a little cuteness to his stupidity to make it more pleasing. Even in the relationship between Bsuhra’s character and Asim, I kept Bushra’s certain adlibs because they seemed very real. On the other hand, my focus was that no one in this world is inherently bad; there are grey areas in everyone’s personality so most of the characters are not categorized as negative or positive.”
Was there a challenge to shoot two generations?
“No, the challenge was the number of kids to show in the drama; we had two sets of one year olds, two sets of six months, two sets of four year olds and then we had a ten years old. It was insane! But I didn’t think that people will get attached to Zoobi and Ahsan or this family. So, I’m a little nervous about the changer over,” she shared.
On acting front, Marina Khan will be seen on-screen in a Big Bang Production serial very soon.
Watch the complete interview here:
