'Teefa in Trouble' first Pakistani film to be released in 25 countries, including Russia
Ali Zafar shares the story behind the film; his favourite characters and what he hopes to achieve
July 19, 2018
Teefa in Trouble, Pakistan’s biggest and most expensive film is all set to be released worldwide tomorrow.
Ahead of the release of the rom-com action film, lead actor Ali Zafar made a grand appearance in the UK. The renowned singer, actor and artist took to the stage in front of thousands of fans in Birmingham and Sandwell Mela to introduce his upcoming film and performed on some of the songs of the film.
Zafar, who’s also the writer and producer of the much-awaited film, told Geo News that Teefa’s journey from the streets of Lahore to the countryside of Poland is full of action, romance and comedy which make it a perfect “Masala” entertainer but of a different type which people of all ages will enjoy.
“Yeh Teefa Kaun Hey” — answering this question, Zafar said, “Teefa is the main character or I should say a 'Karakter' who lives in the old city of Lahore and works for a notorious gangster called 'Butt Sahab' and does various types of jobs for him, including kidnapping. Trouble begins when Teefa is ordered by Butt Sahab to go to Poland to kidnap a girl, 'Anya', who is the daughter of a Polish gangster named 'Bonzo', and then bring her back to Pakistan so his son Billu Butt can marry her.
From there, with Bonzo’s gang and police on one side and Butt Sahab’s goons on the other, a fun-filled roller coaster chain of events starts which will keep the audience in its grip from the first till the last scene.”
While writing the story, Zafar took help from his younger brother Danial and director Ahsan Raheem.
He said, “It didn’t take us long to write the script of the film. First I wrote the story which took some time but then afterwards, Ahsan and Danial joined me and we locked ourselves in my office basement and produced the first draft in a week and then kept on developing it — the story just kept on becoming more interesting every day."
“There were many occasions while writing the script when we couldn’t control our laughter. In fact, the whole process of writing the script was fun,” he recalled further.
The film is mostly shot in Poland and Pakistan apart from one song which is filmed in Bangkok. The first spell of shooting was in Lahore which lasted for 40 days, the second spell in Poland lasted for almost 35 days and then another four to five days of shooting occurred in Bangkok.
“Poland is a beautiful country and till now no one has really discovered it — the whole landscape and the countryside is breathtaking. And we all know about Lahore, the inner city, the fort and the Badshahi Mosque is amazing. We just wanted to show the world what Lahore is — the real culture of the old city. We really wanted to show a positive image of our country through the film,” Zafar told Geo News.
Starring alongside Ali as the heroine is Maya Ali, who is performing in a lead role on the big screen for the first time. Talking about Maya, Zafar said, “Maya Ali has played her role really very well and she’s a great actress and a lovely person to work with. The character of 'Anya' is of a young girl who wants to live her life in her own way.”
“This is another message which I wanted to convey through the film that girls and women also have dreams in life just like boys and men who can do whatever they want to. They also have the right like any other person in this world to fulfil their dreams.”
Speaking about his favourite characters in the film, Zafar said, “The film is a blend of senior and junior artists and all of them have performed their roles exceptionally well. Especially Javed Sheikh, who played the role of 'Bonzo', Seemi Raheel as Teefa’s mother, Nayyar Ejaz as 'Sheikh Sahab' and Asma Abbas as Butt Sahab’s wife as well as Tom Culston, the British actor who played the role of 'Andy'. But my favourite character in this film is of 'Butt Sahab' which was played by veteran TV artist Mahmood Aslam — who is also making a comeback to the big screen and his only son 'Billu Butt' which is played by Ahmed Bilal. The other character which I liked most is of 'Tony', which in the film is played by Faisal Qureshi as Teefa’s friend. But generally speaking, I like all of them as I’ve created all those characters myself".
The music of the film has also been composed by Ali Zafar, who has written the lyrics and sung them too. He said, “Although the most famous so far has been the 'Item Number' song, my personal favourite is the romantic melody song 'Chan Ve'.
Speaking about 'Item Number', Zafar shared, “We wanted to make our item number totally different from routine item songs, in which the girl will refuse to perform the item number. But still we did it in our own style and people really liked it”. The song 'Item Number' has been viewed nearly seven million times on YouTube since being released.
The film will be released on July 20 in 25 countries, including Pakistan, India and UK as well as in Russia, making it the first ever Pakistani film which will be released at such a massive scale. “As a Pakistani, it’s a really proud moment for me,” stated Zafar.
“What I’ve achieved is historic as no one else has done it before. Finally, I have done something for those people and supporters who have made me what I’m today. So When Yash Raj Films decided to release the film worldwide that was an honour for me. They decided to do so after watching the film.”
In Pakistan, the film will be released under the banner of Geo Films. Zafar praised the efforts by GEO for the revival of Pakistan's film industry. “I’m especially thankful to Geo who are supporting this endeavour and the revival of cinema in Pakistan,” he added.
“I would urge people to go out with their family and with friends to watch it as it is a perfect family film which you can even watch with your kids as there’s not a single dialogue or sequence which you can’t watch with kids or other family members,” he asserted.
