Dawn Images

Filmmaker Sarmad Khoosat's film Zindagi Tamasha is just days away from its premiere in cinemas in Pakistan and if there's one person who's over the moon about the film finally seeing the light of day in the country, it's clearly model and actor Eman Suleman.

Zindagi Tamasha, which was barred from being shown in Pakistani cinemas due to political controversy, will be released in Pakistani cinemas on March 18. Directed and co-produced by Sarmad and Kanwal Khoosat and written by Nirmal Bano, Zindagi Tamasha’s cast includes Arif Hassan, Suleman, Samiya Mumtaz and Ali Kureshi. According to the film's description on YouTube, Zindagi Tamasha is "an intimate portrait of a family as well as a scorching political commentary on the little gods on this earth who police private passions".

Suleman's excitement at seeing a poster of Zindagi Tamasha at a local cinema was captured by her husband for the gram and he had a lot to say about finally being able to sees the Churails actor on the big screen. "Finally will get to see my jaanu [sweetheart] on the big screen," he wrote. "I promised her I won’t rant about why we’ve all had to wait so long. All I’m going to say is that I’m proud of the resolve she’s shown after everyone she knows, and doesn’t know, has come up to her to ask 'tumhari movie kab aa rahi hay yaar?' [when is your movie releasing in Pakistan?]. Aa rahi hay ub [It's releasing now]. Buy the tickets. Support your artists. Shahbash [Attaboy].

Cinemas have started to promote the movie's release on their website, showing its release date as March 18.

The trailer for the movie was re-released by production studio Khoosat Films on YouTube, showing the new releases date for the film.

The movie had its premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2019 and was the first Pakistani film to win the prestigious Kim Ji-Seok Award at the festival. It bagged the Snow Leopard Award for Best Film at the 6th Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) in 2021 and was also Pakistan's official film entry in the International Feature Film Award category for the 93rd Academy Awards in 2020.

Zindagi Tamasha faced controversy after the TLP called for protests against its original release on January 24, 2020, alleging it was “blasphemous”. Sarmad had filed a petition against the TLP in a Lahore court for "trying to interfere into the smooth running, public screening/releasing" of Zindagi Tamasha in January 2020.

The petition said that by releasing Zindagi Tamasha, Khoosat Films aimed to "bring the soft image of the society among the public at large", "to reduce the stress from the minds of people" and to "promote the positivity in the society". It also pointed out how the movie had been originally cleared for release by all censor boards in the country.

In July 2020, the Senate Committee for Human Rights had approved the movie for screening as well, dismissing all objections raised against the film, however, it never got a public screening.