ISLAMABAD – Produced and helmed by Noman Khan as his debut film, ‘Sherdil’ is a complete package on PAF which is a lot more than aerobatic show of jets and colours.
Speaking about the film to Express Tribune, Noman told the team about Junaid Jamshed’s (late) contribution to the project, “Junaid Jamshed kept insisting that if you’ve made this song, you must do more. It wasn’t till we lost Junaid that I really decided to pursue it. In fact, I was supposed to be on that very aircraft flying out of Pakistan to look for locations. Junaid suggested we did it very discretely, but he was very much a part of it.”
Noman continued, “He agreed to sing and compose its soundtrack, and he wanted to act in it as well. You know Shoaib Mansor stayed at his place for a couple of days to convince him to do a role in Bol, but he told me it would be an honor for him to be a part of Sherdil and wear the uniform again because his father was a former Air Force officer. We’re giving him a tribute by naming one of the characters in the film Junaid.”
He also spoke of taking PAF on board for the film, “It was very important for me to take PAF on-board, otherwise I couldn’t have the F-16s or the FJ-16s and the helicopters, or access to the base. I kept going to them and they would call me, we would talk about the story, but they never said ‘yes’, until the Air Chief indirectly approved by handing me a chit at a Board’s Meeting a couple of months ago.”
‘Sherdil’ stars Mikaal Zulfiqar and Armeena Khan in leading roles.
Armeena added that Sherdil will have women in a significant light unlike other projects where they are just portrayed as an eye candy, “It’s of a very strong, empowered, modern-day woman who knows what she wants, and there’s tremendous potential for me to explore that side because I’ve played the ‘bechari’ way too many times.”
