Dawn Images

Shamoon Abbasi is working on a web series and retelling the dark tale of Javed Iqbal Mughal.

Speaking to Images, the director revealed that he had "been thinking about this [project] for a while and now we've sort of attained the rights to tell this story. It's a commonly known story but we made sure to carry on professionally."

"The actual title will be The story of Javed Iqbal and the hundred smiles. There were a hundred children who had fallen victim to his heinous acts before he was arrested."

In 1999 Javed Iqbal turned himself in, confessing to the rape and murder of 100 boys. He was found dead at 40 in his cell in 2001.

The poster for the project is out and circulating on social media but Abbasi assured us that this is not the final poster as the title varies.

"We had a bit of a mix-up with the title of the series. It was seen as "The Legend, Javed Iqbal" which made it seem like a positive take when it's definitely not which created the misunderstanding. There is no 'two sides' approach to this. 'Legend' here is in the same context as narrative. We will change the title properly because it's easier that way."

About the series, he said, "Shaam films will be producing the web series and I will be playing Javed Iqbal as well as directing it along with Sherry Shah."

He added, "We're hoping to take this on an international platform but until then, we're planning to start shooting around May and June. Apart from that everything is ready. In fact, I expect the trailer to be out by June as well."

No release date has been given yet.