Pakistani Churail says artists are one, don’t believe in borders

Churails, which released on a streaming platform on August 11, is the first Pakistani show to make a comeback on Indian screen after nearly four years. 

In an interview with BBC, Sarwat Gillani, the lead character, spoke about the show.

Sarwat said: “I knew how Asim writes because I had read Cake’s script. He knows the art of delicately weaving the characters and the story together so when I read the script of Churails, it blew my mind,” she said, added “In my 18 years of experience as an actress or as a viewer, I have never seen something like this. I thought where has he come from? We don’t know this kind of writing or story-telling in Pakistan.”

She further added “When somebody writes something so unusual, they know what they are getting into. We knew it’ll be very tough; we knew there will be consequences but we wanted to jump. And not just Asim, but each and every actor who read their part knew that we have to go into a safe house after the release because it is very unusual. We don’t get that kind of content or response here.”

“I started talking to my family; discussing whether I should do it or not. It is a tricky script because it could either turn out amazing or fall flat on the face. Of course, after 18 years of an acting career, you want to fall flat on your face in the right puddle. I wanted to take the plunge and every moment of it was just worth it,” Sarwat explained.

Talking about scripts on television, Sarwat said: “When you see the kind of stuff that is being well-received on TV, you want to jump out of the balcony with frustration. But I’ve been playing the victim, the bahu, the girl next door, and it was all safe. This was time to do something different,” she said.

“I’m bored of the narrative where the entire focus of the film or drama is around marriage. I’m married, I have two kids, I shouldn’t have to go through this anymore,” she laughed.

“I think the kind of limitations PEMRA and all these people have imposed creates a facade on our screen. The stories that come out of that are not real,” she said and added, “It’s unfortunate that Pakistan didn’t have a platform where they could show such progressive and real stories and it had to be another country to come in and rescue us.”

“Artists all around the world are one; we don’t have borders. I feel that you cannot lock up art in a box and say this is Pakistani and this is Indian. To judge artists, saying you can’t work there or you shouldn’t work it is ridiculous. It is just like children; you can polish them, you can help them evolve, you cannot contain them in a box,” Sarwat emphasized.

Watch the complete interview here: