Sarwat Gilani gets candid about 'Joyland' and her choice of work

Oft-used tropes, monotonous plotlines, and excessively long episodes that entertain an average Pakistani household are what ticked off Lollywood actress and model Sarwat Gilani as she now became conscious of diversely expanding her 18 years of television and filmography career.

The 40-year-old actress went from portraying solid female characters in Saiqa, Dil-e-Muztar, and Aahista Aahista to sending a strong and powerful message to society with Joyland and Churails on an international level. Gilani has now expressed her wishes to portray characters that are round and appeal to the audience.

After her much-loved onscreen presence in Jawani Phir Nahi Ani, the Mata-e-Jaan Hai Tu actress distanced herself from mundane projects in mainstream cinema and television by making her own league with web series including Churails and Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam and films like Joyland.

The actress recently took to her social media platforms to share the success of Churails and its future installments with season two under development, and also commented on how Jolyand broke stereotypes of Pakistani society. Although Gilani's projects have received massive backlash, the actress did not back off from projecting unconventional Pakistani noir.    

Gilani told Dawn Images, “When you come into the industry, you get to do roles that are very much prevalent and part of existing narratives on television and cinema. Everyone goes through that process. When I was at that point, I thought that the ring is too small for me, so I felt that I should explore other areas of storytelling as well.” 

Talking about Churails' upcoming season, the Dil E Muztar actress told Dawn Images, “Everything’s going well (for the new season) and you will find out more when you see it.”

Taking to Instagram, Gilani shared another achievement adding more accolades to her career. The Meenu Gaur directorial Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam starring Gilani in a pivotal role won the Best Anthology award at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in Singapore.

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For many of her critics and fans believing Gilani's characters are a reflection of herself, the actress clarified, “If I wasn’t a feminist, I wouldn’t have supported women’s equal rights on so many platforms. I’m an actor and I work as per the script dictates. I’ve done a lot of crying scenes as well. Do you think I’m the sort of person who cries all the time?”

Despite facing severe public scrutiny from social media users over novice filmmaker Saim Sadiq's project Joyland, Gilani announced that the film became the official submission of Pakistan for the Oscars 2023.

Gilani discussed the initial reaction of the audience and how a certain lot misconstrued the agenda to feed their own narrative. She stated, “I think our audience as well as the press are not used to movies being made on different subjects, so when they see something unique on screen, their reaction can be different. There’s not much to it, really.” 

Discussing the main concern of the critics regarding the allegedly objectionable content in Joyland, the Naulakha actress suggested, “Transgenders are very much part of our culture and society since the olden times. I will refrain from commenting on religion as I’m not an authority on the subject. I think the controversy was raised by only a few people with vested interests to create narrative-seeking attention.” 

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On the work front, Gilani was recently seen in Khasara, Naulakha, Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2, and 3 Bahadur: Rise of the Warriors.

Joyland: Pakistan’s trans-themed movie makes it to Oscars after facing heat at home