Baarwan Khiladi’s press meet-up

Karachi: Surrounded with journalists and bloggers affiliated with different outlets on a classic balmy Karachi afternoon, the cast of Baarwan Khiladi – Mahira Khan’s maiden project as a freshly minted producer – showed a little glimpse of the coming sports web series in a brief press meet-up held at a local hotel.

The web-series, produced by Mahira alongside producer Nina Kashif and director Adnan Sarwar of Motorcycle Girl fame, will be released on Tapmad TV, a local OTT platform.

The series revolves around the Shaheen XI cricket team with 12 players that have qualified for a league. It focuses on what a young man with dreams has to do in the midst of rivalry, power and an unfair system to qualify for the playing 11.

Superstar Mahira Khan called the project as quite different and unique while leading the project as a producer. “It is very different to sit here as a producer and not an actor,” she said. “When you are an actor, you can put a lot of things on the shoulder of the producer and be like ‘what could have we done, production was like this, this happened because of that’. But right now, no matter what happens to series, the onus lies on us.”

She reiterated that the story is not a sanitised version of a cricket story. “When I started to read it, I was like ‘oh, this is different. I am not reading a sanitised version of a cricket story. Every sports series or film has the story of a boy going out there and Baarwan Khiladi is similar to that, but there’s also something very different about it.”

Speaking on the occasion – Tapmad TV heads Zain and Yasir Pasha – expressed their hope that the web series will click with the Pakistani audience as it has something fresh to offer. “Sponsor driven content is is sanitised in a way that it has to fit into the image of what the sponsor wants, but when the consumer is paying for it, you get to watch what you want and that is what Tapmad wants” said Yasir.

Baarwan Khiladi includes actor and singer Danyal Zafar alongside with Shahveer Jafry, a prominent Pakistani YouTuber making his acting debut through the series. The series also stars Kinza Hashmi, Sarmad Khoosat, Saba Faisal, Hina Ashfaque, Mohsin Gillani, Shafqat Cheema, Mira Sethi, Usman Peerzada, Fawad Jalal, Salman Butt, Meer Yusuf, Ali Tahir, Khaqan Shahnawaz, Zarrar Khan, Sajjad ul Haq, Ali Abbas, Waqar Ali, Hammad Akmal and Umer Hayat Chaudhry.

The web-series will release on Tapmad TV on March 5.

Japan consulate hosts Emperor Naruhito’s birthday celebrations in Karachi

Karachi: In one of the most dignified evenings of the city, the Japanese consulate in Karachi hosted a National Day Reception to celebrate the 62nd birthday of His Majesty the Emperor Naruhito at a local hotel.

The event was attended by around 400 guests from all walks of life including foreign diplomats, politicians, state officials, leading academic personalities, and members of rights groups. It was particularly important for coinciding with the celebrations of 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Pakistan.

In his address, Counsel General of Japan in Karachi Isomura Toshikazu welcomed guests and expressed his pleasure on being able to host National Day reception after a year due to the pandemic. He touched upon the historical significance of bilateral ties and congratulated the people of both the countries on reaching the 70 years milestone with remarkable cooperation in economic, social and cultural fields.

“We congratulate the people of Japan and Pakistan for maintaining cordial diplomatic relations in the last 70 years. Our relations pre-date the second world war when Japan used to import cotton from the areas that are now in Pakistan for its textile industry,” he maintained.

He also stressed on the utilization of untapped potential in business, commercial and technical areas on reiterated the Japanese government’s commitment to the further strengthening of friendly relations between the two countries.

The counsel general said that the trade between Japan and Pakistan stands at $2billion, adding that given the potential between the countries the trade volume number can go far beyond that with substantive investments – “Karachi has significant importance in the trade relations between Japan and Pakistan.”

He said that strong literary relations between the countries are being established – and that can be vindicated from the fact that a number of bestselling Japanese novels have been translated in Urdu to cater to the Pakistani readers.

“The Japanese consulate holds the Aalmi Urdu Conference in deep respect,” he said before adding that he desires to see further strengthening of relations between the two friendly and important countries.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Japan Forum Chairman Kaleem Farooqi apprised the guests that the forum has marked its twentieth year since its formation.

He said that the two countries share a similarity that both of them started their modern journey after the Second World War. While Pakistan exported raw cotton to Japan, Tokyo shared technical expertise and products that helped the Pakistani automobile and textile to sustain.

“The forum will always be there to bridge the business community of both the countries,” he remarked.

The event was concluded with ceremonial cake cutting after which guests were served with dinner featuring live sushi, Japanese and Pakistani cuisine.