A number of Pakistani films were shelved or discontinued in the aftermath of the pandemic. The long hiatus was not favorable for any new filmmaker, producer or actor that had invested a lot of time and effort in a project, only to be discontinued for years. The most recent to make an announcement was Faysal Quraishi who has parted ways with his film Sorry: A Love Story.
The actor and producer of the project announced on Instagram that he has shelved the film and apologized to his fans. Faysal shared a teaser of the film and called it “the first and last look” for his fans who were waiting for the film.
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“Presenting the first and last look of Sorry A Love Story, produced by FQ Films and SJ Films, directed by Sohail Javed, producer Faysal Quraishi, written by Asma Nabeel and Sohail Javed,” he wrote in the caption.
He mentioned everyone from his DOP, associate director to the makeup artists and stylist, the singers involved in the music of the film and all “everyone who believed in us”.
The teaser showed us glimpses of everyone in the cast from Faysal, Faryal Mehmood, Aamina Sheikh, Zahid Ahmed, Adnan Siddiqui, Ali Tahir amongst others. It started off with a dialogue “if you find love, don’t let it go and if you lose it, set off in search of it”. And it seems that everyone is either searching or yearning for something in the film. With picturesque locales and dialogue laden premises, the film promised to be “a story of love, loss and heartache” as the words flash in the middle of the teaser.
A couple of hours prior to the release of this first look, Faysal posted a video with Sohail Javed. Firstly, he nullified all the rumours that there was some friction between the two and then, he announced with a heavy heart that they are officially shelving the film Sorry: A Love Story.
“What I’m going to talk about today is very painful for me, but more for Sohail because it was his baby. It is a very painful news, believe me, that we are officially shelving Sorry, we are discontinuing it,” he said in the video.
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The actor mentioned that there are many reasons behind this decision. “Though many friends supported me, there were others whose words and actions were not in favour of the film. It stopped us for a while then Covid hit [and] following Covid there were other issues. Keeping in mind the state of our industry today, we realized it’s better to shelf it. I would like to apologize to my fans for disappointing them, I am extremely sorry. But Insha Allah we will continue working,” he said.
Sohail Javed also expressed his feelings in the same video:
“Faysal said everything that needed to be said. The people who tried to stop us can go be happy as we’ve finally stopped it, shelved it, we won’t be making it. But as a parting gift, we will be releasing a short teaser, like a first look of the film so that the people who were lovingly waiting for the it can be left with something,” he said adding that they will “return with a new story or perhaps the same story again.”
It would have been a pleasure to see Asma Nabeel’s work after her demise, but unfortunately, the film won’t make it to the theaters.
