Pakistani director, Adnan Sarwar appeared in an interview with a publication and discussed about his upcoming web series Barwaan Khiladi which is also Mahira Khan’s first production venture.
The upcoming web series is about cricket and features Danyal Zafar, Sarmad Khoosat, Shahveer Jafry, Kinza Hasmi and many more.
While talking about Baarwan Khiladi’s plot, Sarwar shared that it is “a very human story, of struggle and companionship, except that it revolves around cricket. It shows the hero’s journey, the obstacles that he has to overcome. Cricket is like a character in the story”.
Sarwar told why he chose a project which is produced by Khan. He said, “Knowing that Nina Kashif and Mahira Khan would be the producers was a big attraction. I am grateful that they reached out to me”.
“Having said that, I always wanted to do something related to cricket. When the opportunity came, I was, like, let’s do it! Also, I thought it would be fun to work with other people [as producers]. Otherwise, I work in a small bubble of my own. I work in isolation, really cut off from the rest of the industry in whichever way. But it’s been a nice experience!” he added.
He further told the publication, “I’ve played cricket all my life — I was a batsman at the college level — and I’ve watched a lot of cricket, like every other Pakistani, so it was a good starting point”.
“Besides, I’ve been an athlete, so I have a natural affinity for sports movies. Sports stories have a trajectory, the hero’s journey, which appeals to me a lot. Baarwan Khiladi is also the story of the rise of the underdog. As the title suggests, it’s about the twelfth player rather than the playing eleven” he went on.
Sarwar also discussed about training the cast, he said, “We had professional cricketers attached with the team. Some of them are also embedded in the series — as characters. Fortunately, our boys are all fantastic cricketers; they only needed to polish their game a bit. So they trained for about a month. It also enabled me, as a director, to identify certain kinds of strokes that I could focus on”.
Adnan stated the reason for choosing the project and said, “As for Baarwan Khiladi, I had multiple reasons to not go solo — I was coming out of a surgery, not being in a position to do the entire task myself, looking for a support system around me, and then obviously as a director, I was given leeway by the producers to not to be tied to what’s on paper”.
