Pakistan’s heartthrob Fawad Khan has been missing from the limelight for quite sometime. We know the fate of Fawad’s highly anticipated film — The Legend of Maula Jatt — is in doldrums and there isn’t any confirmed release date in sight, however in the last few weeks we have learned some exciting news about Fawad’s upcoming projects. One of which piqued our interest the most; on December 11th, the actor has launched a platform — The Next Big Story — which is a competition for aspiring content writers to encourage, motivate and recognize them.
Held at Ali Auditorium in Lahore, the event was attended by a panel of esteemed guests including Mahira Khan, Humayun Saeed, Ahmed Ali Butt, Vasay Chaudhry, Asim Raza and Navid Shahzad, who spoke about what makes a good script and Fawad made the big announcement for the hunt of the next big-screen writer.
Humayun Saeed, Mahira Khan, Ahmed Ali Butt
With an aim to bridge the gap between writers, producers and directors, the idea behind the platform is to improve the quality of content in the industry. While Mahira and Ahmed spoke about their script selection methods, Humayun and Asim explained their views on good scripts for producers and directors respectively. Vasay and Navid Shahzad talked about the writing aspect.
Asim Raza, Navid Shahzad, Vasay Chaudhry
The competition in The Next Big Story will be divided into multiple phases. Writers from all over Pakistan are welcomed to take part in it. Fawad explained that the first phase is a script-writing competition to explore talented writers and their work. The scriptwriters will submit a synopsis of their stories in the first part and the winning story writers will then be asked to write full screenplays. The winning screenplay will get a chance to get their film produced by Fawad Khan’s production house, Alteridom Films.
Talking about the platform, Fawad said: “It’s never been a better time to be a writer – or to aspire to become one. With the rise of our local cinema along with immense opportunities in global digital cinema, we feel there needs to be a platform for aspiring scriptwriters. This will not only help them break into the industry but will also provide them with a place that will recognize them and help them overcome some of the challenges in content writing.”
“For years we have been hearing about problems film industry professionals encounter in finding the right stories and interesting scriptwriters to work with. At the same time scriptwriters don’t know where to go and whom to contact to present their work. That is why we bring to you The Next Big Story,†he added.
Ehteshamuddin, Amar Khan, Behroz Sabzwari & Seemi Raheel
The launch was attended by the crème de la crème of our film industry, including Nadeem Baig, Ehteshamuddin, Behroz Sabzwari, Seemi Raheel, Farhad Humayun, Amar Khan and many more.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed; perhaps Fawad will be able to find the right story for himself as well through this competition.
