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The three-day Indus Valley School (IVS) Film Festival concluded on Sunday with a thought-provoking panel discussion on how characters in mainstream dramas and films were crafted from the perspectives of writers, directors and actors.

The discussion titled Heroes and Villains — Stereotypes and Nuances in Film and TV had drama writer Bee Gul, director Nadeem Baig and actors Sarwat Gillani and Sabeena Farooq who have worked in a number of drama and film projects.

Journalist Fifi Haroon, the moderator of the event, asked Gul to def­i­ne the concept of heroes and villains.

“I feel a villain is way more liberated, free of fear of judgement as compared to hero because he is not scared of what people say about him. However in Pakistan, we create sort of ‘cardboard’ villains where we fail to deliver the backstory and psychological aspects of the characters,” she replied.

Continuing the discussion, Haroon asked Gul if there was enough space for impactful heroes.

“There is not a lot of space, but as an artist, you have to create the space. For example, in Raqeeb Se, I have created a villain who is a domestic abuser, however, the audience couldn’t hate him completely, because there is a backstory, so in the same way, we can create heroes with human elements,” she answered.

Farooq shared a story about stepping away from the shoot of Tere Bin because she couldn’t relate to the character of Haya, an obsessive lover trying to break up the couple. She highlighted how many characters might not resonate with actresses, but that did not mean such characters did not exist.

“I was told by my director and co-actors that such characters exist and then I went to research on my own, that is how I was able to manufacture this character the way the audience saw it,” she recalled.

Haroon asked her a follow-up question about why there was a scarcity of ambitious, strong-headed female heroes in the Pakistani media.

“I really wish that someday we progress enough to show layers of ambitious characters the way we unwrap characters in love because we need it. It is not like we don’t have strong-headed female leads, but there are not enough, however, we’re trying,” she said.

Then, responding to a question which was about the importance of multiple female characters in one show and their separate stories coming together, Baig talked about the craft of writing and making characters believable.

“The major craft lies in writing, and then it is up to the director how they weave these multiple characters with different backstories together. It is a challenging task to make these stories believable, but that is where the creativity comes in. There are multiple ways to create one scene. For example, during Sinf-i-Aahan, I asked Umera Ahmed [writer] to change the approaches of a few scenes,” he said.

“I would like to add that one person’s protagonist can be another person’s antagonist,” Gillani added.

The discussion ended on the note that keeping the originality of the content intact, there should be more female-led films in Pakistan and characters should be agents of change.

The event concluded with an award ceremony for aspiring filmmakers and a soulful musical performance.

Originally published in Dawn, September 9th, 2024