Sohai Ali Abro tells all about upcoming film Motorcycle Girl

Pakistani actor Sohai Ali Abro has said her upcoming film Motorcycle Girl aims to empower more women to ride motorcycles.

“The idea behind the film is to make it okay for women to ride motorcycles on the streets of Pakistan and get rid of the notion that it is something abnormal,” Sohai said during her appearance on Geo Pakistan.

The actor lamented that when women are seen riding motorcycles in Pakistan it’s seen as abnormal and people take pictures of them and post them on social media. “It shouldn’t be this way,” she asserted.

Sohai who learnt to ride a motorcycle especially for the role further recalled that she started off with learning how to ride a bicycle.

“I was born in 1993 so in my time we had scooties and I didn’t even know to ride a bicycle forget a motorcycle,” she said.

But Sohai learnt it well and fast through training from Women on Wheels. “The director and I were scared that I might be involved in an accident, however, it went pretty smoothly.”

“There was only this one incident in which I gave too much race and the motorcycle went over rocks but I gained control and didn’t fall of,” she added.

Discussing that the film is based on Zenith Irfan, who is believed to be the first Pakistani woman to take a solo bike trip through the country's north, Sohai said, “It was her father’s dream to ride his motorcycle from Lahore to Khunjerab.” The actor added that Zenith lost her father when she was 11 months old and growing up she used to question her mother regarding her father’s unfulfilled dreams so she could fulfil them.

The film revolves around an independent and strong-willed girl who is constantly breaking stereotypes. 

Further, she said that as a person she’s “very different from the character so it was a challenge.” She said, “I am very loud as a person and the character is very quiet.”

However, Sohai dismissed that the movie is a serious documentary and said, “It has a lot of comedy.”

The actor who gave stellar performances in two of 2015’s biggest blockbusters Wrong No and Jawani Phir Nahi Ani (JPNA) explained that she took a break from the screen as she didn’t find any script offered to her at the time compelling.

“I just felt that as an actor the kind of work I was getting was stereotyping me into the role of a patakha larki. I wanted to do something intense and substantial,” Sohai said.

She added that she met Adnan Sarwar at a social event and when he discussed he was making a new film she immediately said she wanted to be a part of it as she “was a huge fan of his Shah.”

Motorcycle Girl will release in cinemas across Pakistan on April 20. It is written by Adnan Sarwar, whose first feature film Shah was based on the story of Pakistani Olympian Syed Hussain Shah.