LAHORE: Ever since the trailer of ‘Chalay Thay Saath’ was released, we have been waiting for the movie desperately. And so the wait is almost over as the team is out and about all over the country promoting the movie, set to release later this month.
Directed by Umer Adil, Chalay Thay Saath is a romantic movie revolving around a group of friends who embark on a trip to the North. The film is shot mostly in Hunza and Gilgit includes the new and veteran stars, Syra Shahroz, International film actor Kent S Leung, Faris Khalid, Zhalay Sahardi, Mansha Pasha, Osama Tahir and Behroze Sabzwari to name a few.
“Chalay Thay Saath is a movie about friends, family, values, love and maybe about hate,” says lead star Syra Shahroz while talking to media at an exclusive bloggers meetup that happened in Lahore at Cafe Latch. Not only that, the producer Beenish Umer said that since the movie has been mostly shot in Hunza and Gilgit, the audience will be in for a ride to the most beautiful places in Pakistan.
As the event progressed, Pakistan Today got a chance to have one-on-one conversations with the cast. Syra Shahroz while talking to Pakistan Today about her character said, “I am playing the role of Resham, which is a very interesting character for me.”
“Resham is very close to me as a person because in a way that is who I am in real life,” she said.
Syra continued to say that playing Resham, who is a doctor, was a lot of fun because most of the times she just had to be herself to be one with the character.
Kent S. Leung’s character is playing the love interest of Syra’s character. Faris, Osama, Mansha and Zhalay are playing the roles of Resham’s friends.
While talking about working with Kent, she said, “I had a lot of fun working with him, as he is very easy-going and he always brought positive energy on the set; he was always very energetic, which made the work interesting and easy.”
Similarly, when asked Kent about his experience working in a Pakistani movie, he said, “I had a great time working on the film, the team was very welcoming since the very first day.” The stars seemed particularly excited for the movie because it wasn’t just another project for them.
Furthermore, while talking about his experience shooting a film in Pakistan he said, “After we started shooting for Chalay Thay Saath, I stopped thinking it was a Pakistani film, but just a film, so I did what I am best at: acting.”
“The film will speak for itself because not only did I have a lot of fun during the shoot, but Beenish and Umer’s professional work ethics played a major role in encouraging the work quality.”
Syra, while talking about her experience working in the film said, “Beenish and Umer did a commendable job putting it all together.” “It gets difficult to work at times, but the way they handled the ups and down during the period was just amazing,” she added.
Another cast member we ran into was Faris Khalid who took time out to speak to us about the movie and shooting in the north of the country.
“I was contacted for a part in the movie when they were writing the movie, I read it, auditioned and I got the part, that’s how I got the role,” he said.
He also said that the experience of shooting in Hunza was great, not because it was his first time there, but because it is a beautiful place and one can fall in love with it.
He continued to say, “The film is about a group of friends, but it is also about the effects of places like Hunza on relationships.” “This is what we experienced as well: fresh air, away from the normal routine, clear-headed so we were able to focus on what we were doing,” Faris said.
While talking about his character he said that since the movie is about a journey of a group of friends and certain events that take place at the destination which change their perspective. Same is the case with his character, who is trying to figure out his life and because of during the journey, everything changes. “You’ll have to watch the movie to know more,” he joked.
While talking about his experience working with the co-stars he said that everybody instantly bonded and it became more of a fun thing, rather than a work thing. “It felt like we were students living in a dorm, rehearsing their lines, shooting together and just having fun.” “On our days off, we used to go for treks, sight-seeing,” Faris continued.
Faris continued to talk to us about how he chooses his projects and said that if people do this as a job just to earn a living, then an individual takes up any project that comes his way. But, if one has the luxury to pick and choose his projects, it could vary from one project a year to infinite.
“Since I am picky and choosy, I am okay with one project a year,” he said. “For an actor, the challenge is to take up a role that is different from who you are,” Faris explained. “The acting process involves you to learn and get to know about the different kind of roles you can play and that’s exactly why I play the characters that I do, and I want to live the experience while acting and not just do the usual,” he elaborated.
The meetup ended with a lot of selfies, candid conversations with the cast, giving everyone more and more reason to go watch the movie.
As Kent said, “I don’t want to prep the audience as to what to expect from the film. You should just go there, watch the movie, have fun and forget about everything else.”
Everyone go hit your nearest theatres on 21st April 2017, because this could be a movie you don’t want to miss.
