KARACHI: Nine years after it was first announced, The Legend of Maula Jatt, a reboot of a 1979 cult classic, is set to hit movie theaters around the world today, Thursday, with the top stars of the film saying ahead of the release it was the “most ambitious project” in the history of Pakistani cinema.
The long-awaited Punjabi language film stars Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan (no relation) and Hamza Ali Abbasi and is the biggest budgeted film in Pakistan’s history. The plot revolves around Maula Jatt, a fierce prizefighter with a tortured past who seeks vengeance against his arch nemesis Noori Natt, considered the most feared warrior in Punjab.
Director Bilal Lashari, whose debut feature “Waar” broke box office records in Pakistan in 2013, had announced the film in 2013 but actual production started in January 2017. The same year, Muhammad Sarwar Bhatti, the producer of the original Maula Jatt film, filed a suit before the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan, as well as multiple applications for a stay order in the Lahore High Court in 2019 to block the producer and director of the new movie from using material that he said violated his intellectual property.
After a lengthy legal battle, a settlement was reached between the two parties in 2020, a year after filming was completed. But the coronavirus pandemic further delayed the film’s release and it is now finally set to hit screens this week in Pakistan, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Nadeem Mandviwalla, the film’s distributor, said the movie’s budget would cross 50 crores by the time it released worldwide, including marketing, publicity and advertising.
“The Legend of Maula Jatt is probably the most ambitious project in the history of Pakistani cinema, with a regional language, Punjabi, as the language of the film,” Fawad Khan, who plays Maula Jatt, told Arab News in an exclusive interview in Karachi last week.
“Putting a film out like this, with such an enormous budget, is a very big gamble, a very big risk,” he said. “If it pays back, and hopefully it does, it will put a foot in the door for the presence of Pakistani films on a wider global scale.”
Hamza Ali Abbasi, who returned to the big screen after four years to bring the infamous Noori Natt to life, said the film would set “milestones” for Pakistan’s declining film industry, or Lollywood.
“The Legend of Maula Jatt is way more than a movie for all of us and that’s why we gave it way more than what probably professionalism would have demanded,” he told Arab News. “It will set some milestones, whether it be the business it does, whether it be the scale of the film, the action part, the get-ups, the looks.”
“I really hope that this film does some good for our cinema industry [which] I really feel is declining,” he added.
Another milestone of the film, “that people like Mahira and Fawad are speaking Punjabi … Nobody imagined that happening,” Abbasi said, laughing.
Speaking to Arab News, Mahira, who has faced some backlash for being cast in the role instead of a native Punjabi speaker, acknowledged that speaking the language felt “alien” to her.
“Of course, you have heard it [the Punjabi language] in music, and songs, etc. but it is sort of alien to you, especially, the meanings behind the words,” the actress said. “So, it was very tough but once you get the hang of it, and once you know what it means, then you [can] do it.”
“Hamza was also pushing me to do this film and then promised me that I’ll teach you [Punjabi],” Mahira said.
Abbasi pipped in: “And I did a wonderful job.”
“Hopefully, once it releases everybody can blame Hamza,” the actress responded, jokingly.
Her son, who Mahira said had never before commented on a film she was in, said after watching the teaser: “‘Oh my God, Mama, this is cool’,” Khan said, smiling. “As a mother, it makes me feel proud that I was a part of this.”
“Hopefully, this generation, which does not go and watch Pakistani cinema, will go out, take their children,” she added, “and hopefully, we will have a hero and a villain to celebrate.”
The actors hope the film will do more than 100 crores of business, and audiences would appreciate a new take on the classic film.
“That [original film] was made for a different era, this film has been made for a different era,” Khan said. “The actors, Sultan Rahi Sahib [who played Jatt], Mustafa Qureshi Sahib [Natt], industry veterans, who had hundreds of films behind them, under their belt ... to fill those kind of shoes would be impossible task, so we kind of gave it our own spin.”
