After much hue and cry, Pakistan’s supposedly ‘biggest’ film is finally releasing after making us wait for three long years. Will it be worth the wait? We’ll have to wait another few days to decide. Till then, there are two things about the film that have contributed to its hype. Firstly, this is apparently Pakistan’s most expensive film so far. Secondly, the film boasts an all star ensemble cast that sees the likes of many big names like Shaan, Humayun Saeed, Adnan Siddiqui, Bilal Ashraf, Ayesha Omar, Armeena Rana Khan and Sana Bucha. Yes, we did name Shaan even though the super star has been missing in Yalghaar’s promotional action.
Dr Hassan Waqas Rana’s film premiered at the Islamabad GHQ on Saturday, and DG ISPR General Asim Bajwa kind of stole everyone’s thunder, we heard. We also noticed that some of the film’s high billed stars were missing on the red carpet. While Humayun Saeed, Adnan Siddiqui and Ayesha Omar were seen in attendance, we didn’t see Bilal Ashraf, Armeena Khan and most significantly, Shaan. Who misses their own film’s premiere, specially one that is being touted as such a grand production? Apparently Shaan does.
Adnan Siddiqui and Humayun Saeed at the Islamabad premiere of Yalghaar.
This isn’t the first time Shaan has been missing from Yalghaar‘s promotions. The actor was also absent at the trailer launch of the film in Karachi. We were told then that Shaan had been injured in some way which didn’t allow him to attend the event, an excuse we would have believed had Hassan Rana not forgotten to even mention Shaan’s name on stage. Hassan had spent an hour talking about his interaction with each and every single one of his film’s actors, even the extras, and gave a 15 minute introduction to each star. However, he simply left Shaan’s name out until one journalist shouted out at the end “Sir, you forgot to talk about Shaan!”
We admit that we were keeping a vigilant eye on Shaan’s involvement with the film’s promotions and noticed that he wasn’t part of a recent magazine cover that featured the ‘star cast’: Adnan Siddiqui, Bilal Ashraf, Armeena Rana Khan, Ayesha Omar and Sana Bucha. Then he didn’t show up at the Islamabad premiere either and of course our alarm bells are ringing! Where is Shaan?
Bilal Ashraf also decided to miss the premiere as did Armeena Rana Khan and Uzma Khan. We don’t know the reason behind this but it can’t be good. Bilal was being promoted as the face of Yalghaar thanks to his intense training with the SSG commandos and all the stunts he has performed in the film. Something Haute eventually reached out to Bilal Ashraf who revealed that he missed the premiere due to some personal commitments.
We also approached Shaan for a statement and while he didn’t want to comment on record we think his absence from both events says it all.
