Skip to main content

If you’ve been an avid audience of Pakistani cinema like us, chances are that you’ve also noticed that there’s one actor who filmmaker Nabeel Qureshi always works with, and that’s Fahad Mustafa! Whether it was NMA 1 & 2 or Actor in Law, the partnership between the duo seemingly never ends. Now, on their fourth venture together in Load Wedding, will the dynamic ever change?

“When we were jotting down the script, we had already thought that Fahad Mustafa should play the character,” Nabeel Qureshi revealed to Something Haute. “It was easier to visualize and I was able to write then according to his potential.”

The director also questioned why he’s often probed for choosing Fahad in his film.

“It has become a patented question and I’m always asked that ‘why Fahad Mustafa?’” Nabeel lamented. “I want to say, ‘why not Fahad Mustafa?’ Firstly, he’s worked in all my three films, did anyone ever think once that he doesn’t fit the role? If no one has felt that, then there’s no point in asking this.  Yes, if a person isn’t doing well in the film and is a flop, then I’d understand this question, but if that actor is doing a great job on the screen, then why not?”

Also read: Here’s why ‘Load Wedding’ is NOT ‘Punjab Nahi Jaungi’

Load Wedding also seems to have not just Fahad as a recurring star, but also Mehwish Hayat, who has been a part of NMA and Actor in Law. Is that again a conscious choice that Nabeel always makes?

“It’s not like that these are the only people I thought about that I’ll work with, but, we have a certain chemistry that works,” Nabeel said. “I think it happens worldwide, where directors just select a certain team who they’d want to work with. It is sometimes conscious, and sometimes they do fall into the character organically.”

Load Wedding is slated for an Eid-Ul-Azha release and will be competing with Jawani Phir Nahi Aani 2 and Parwaaz Hai Junoon.

Shahjehan Saleem

The author is Contributing Editor at Something Haute as well as a professor in the Media Sciences department at SZABIST, Karachi. Socio-cultural theories and geography fill up the rest of his time.