Anwar Maqsood and Dawar Mahmood announce Aangan Terha prequel

KopyKats Productions' new project is a prequel to their earlier play Aangan Terha.

This was announced at a press conference in Karachi earlier today, where writer Anwar Maqsood, director Dawar Mehmood, actor Yasir Hussain and Karachi Arts Council President Ahmed Shah talked about how this new production titled Naach Na Jaaney came to be.

Anwar Maqsood shared, "The director of this play was after my life for years to come up with a part two for [Aangan Terha], which I said was impossible. So we decided to do one thing... instead of making a sequel for this story we made a prequel, and started [lead character] Akbar’s story from 1978 when Zia-ul-Haq came into power and banned dance and music in the country. So we will start Akbar’s story from there... [and show why] a classical dancer came to Aangan Terha to cook food. The story is based on the 10 years that Zia was in power."

The play Aangan Terha was based on the '80s PTV hit that starred Shakeel, Arshad Mehmud, Durdana Butt and Bushra Ansari. The prequel will be the Art Council Karachi’s first production.

Dawar welcomed the new producers on board, saying "A lot of credit goes to Shah sahab, because handling Yasir is difficult, handling me is even more difficult and handling Anwer Sahab is impossible. He managed three people in one project, and that too, such a combination of people, which we used first in Ponay Chauda August, then in Sawa Chauda August, and finally in Aangan Terha. I think it’s a brilliant combination of people, I’m very excited, and hats off to the Arts Council for tackling so many projects."

Maqsood added about casting, "I haven’t to this day complimented someone to their face, but Yasir has played Akbar’s role in Aangan Terha, and he played this role very well. So Yasir will play Akbar’s role again [in the prequel]."

Further elaborating about casting, he claimed that they auditioned 11,000 people to cast in Naach Na Jaaney, of which 9,000 were women.

Naach Na Jaaney will open for audiences on March 1 in Karachi.