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These days, films in Pakistan are being made with a budget of Rs50 million to Rs60m. You don’t need a big budget to make a ‘found footage’ film. Our film does not have any item number or a very famous actor, and it is for the first time in Pakistan that a movie based on found footage has been made. This was said by Emran Hussain, the writer and director of Aksbandh at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday.

Mr Hussain said Aksbandh, which is going to be released nationwide on May 20 (today), is a horror film. He claimed that only seven countries in the world made found footage movies and Pakistan was going to be next. He said in such a film a group of people, usually from the young generation, goes to a far-off place to shoot something. Gradually members of the group begin to go missing, creating a mysterious situation. Afterwards, the camera is found from whose footage an attempt is made to resolve that how and where they went missing.

Mr Hussain said the ‘pull’ of a horror movie was not its cast members, which was why those who were acting in Aksbandh were not big names of the industry. He said when he wrote the film Main Hoon Shahid Afridi, he realised that films like Waar were being made by spending a big amount on them. He also thought that the youth were not represented in such projects, whereas, he said, anyone who had talent could make a film.

The producer of Aksbandh, Naveed Arshad, said when Emran Hussain came to him with the idea of the film, he felt excited about it. He said it did not matter to him whether it was a hit or flop; rather what was important was that it’s a ‘different’ concept and a different concept always got noticed.

Replying to a question, Mr Hussain said he would call his film a low-budget venture. He said the biggest challenge that he faced during filming was that of the sound mixing for which the team had to go to India. He said if the film ran for one week or a little more in the theatres, everyone would start making movies. He said it took him 13 days to shoot the story, 12 in a place near Larkana and one in Karachi.

Ayaz Samoo, a cast member and co-writer of Aksbandh, said it was the first time that a horror film had been attempted and called it ‘effective’ and ‘feasible’.

Actress Mahrukh said it’s a feature film and she’s proud of it.

Actress Shehzeen Rahat said it was a good experience for her to work in the film. She said the genre was challenging.

Actor Danial Afzal Khan echoed his co-actors’ thoughts saying it was a challenging project.

In between the conversation, the promo of the film was also shown.

Originally published in Dawn, May 20th, 2016