Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui, along with Ayesha Omar and Humayun Saeed were recently spotted in Turkey (thanks to Adnan’s Instagram). The actor revealed in his post that they are in Istanbul, attending the opening of sets for the upcoming highly anticipated Pakistani-Turkish drama series on the life of the famed 12th-century Muslim commander Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi.
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Ayesha also posted a picture with Humayun from the sets and wrote:
“Humbled, supremely grateful and floored to be a part of history in the making. Thank you Allah, for this fantastic opportunity to tell the world our story, with the coolest team, the coolest crew and in the coolest city ever. One dreams of stuff like this. And I dared to do so. But it’s all HIM. On the sets of the first ever Pakistan/Turkey collab telling the story of one of the greatest Islamic warriors in the history of world, the great Selahaddin Eyyubi. This is just the beginning. Cannot wait to be in costume, on set and in character. InshAllah!”
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Ushna Shah also visited the sets and shared a few clicks:
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The TV series is produced by Pakistan’s Ansari and Shah Films and Turkey’s Akli Films. While Ayesha’s pictures and videos showed us a glimpse of the grand sets that are constructed for the historical drama, Ansari-Shah Films official Instagram handle revealed a lot more in detail. The producers also shared that the shooting will commence soon after the launch event.
“Sets will be opened on the 30th day of July 2022. Filming of this historic drama serial shall start soon thereafter.”
“We are grateful to all the friends who supported this project and specifically Humayun Saeed and Adnan Siddiqui who have backed us from day one. They have been a tremendous inspiration and driving force behind us. Their guidance has been pivotal in steering our way to materialize this humongous feat. It is also important to mention the grand company of Mr. Sarfaraz Akber that made every trip beautiful and he continues to extend his valuable advice from time to time,” the post read.
Take a look at the beautiful sets:
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It appears that the main set spreads over acres of land to create a historic feel. These sets will eventually be used as the shops, quarters, houses or the religious places for the community shown in the series.
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According to Ansari-Shah Films official website, “the joint production has already started and the outlines of 3 seasons of the serial will start its production in as early as spring 2022. Pakistan showbiz industry will have a lifetime opportunity to showcase their talent as Ansari–Shah production has been able to secure 25% slots in the entire production including technical, writing, dialogues, acting, marketing, etc. departments.”
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in August 2021, Humayun Saeed and Adnan Siddiqui along with partners Dr Junaid Ali Shah (Shah Films) and Dr Kashif Ansari (Ansari Films) signed an agreement with Turkish producer Emre Konuk (founder of Akli Films and producer and scriptwriter of popular Turkish series The Great Seljuks: Guardians of Justice) to produce this mega project. For the record, this will be Humayun, Adnan and their team’s second collaboration with Turkish producers – the first being another highly anticipated and perhaps an even bigger project titled Turki Lala that was announced earlier.
Humayun also disclosed that 25% of the cast for this project will comprise Pakistani actors who will first be sent to Turkey to learn Turkish as the series will primarily be shot in that language and then dubbed in Urdu.
The script is written by Ahmet Faruk Bakacak who is the Media Communications Director at Akli Films. Both Humayun and Adnan are serving as executive producers on the project which will be financed by Dr Junaid Ali Shah of Shah Films and Dr Kashif Ansari of Ansari films. Add to that Turkish technical expertise and production skills and we are sure to have a really fantastic project at our hands.
