Chosen Actors

Our film ’Dacoits’ had 3 main characters. All the actors were to be mature as demanded by the script and were suppose to be in the age range of 22-24 because dacoits in our society are classified as frustrated poor guys. So, it was obvious that we had to bring someone from outside as we ourselves weren’t appropriate for these kinds of roles.

Imran –Sahal Manzoor Sheikh

This is Sahal Manzoor Sheikh, 24 Years Old, currently studying in Fatih University Turkey. Sahal graduated from LSE & currently lives in Turkey but visited to Lahore & after few meetings he agreed to help us in our

film opening. Sahal was an experienced actor, as he did theatres in his university days in Lahore. He is a very versatile actor too. Sahal led his drama team to different competitions in his university days & has also worked in few small time film projects. Sahal was firstly considered for the role of Bilal or Usama (Dacoits) & soon it was confirmed that he would be playing Bilal but something was off with him playing Bilal’s character, we even swapped his role with Usama to bring back his charm but every time he played a Dacoit’s role; he failed to bring the best out of his character. So, finally we decided to try him for the role of Imran(Driver) & just after the first rehearsal with the group he managed to bring his best in the role of Imran. Though there was never really a doubt about Sahal being a tremendous actor but he was certainly being dragged in the role of a Dacoit. With his innocent looks he most certainly suited the character of Imran who was the victim of this gun point robbery. At the start we didn’t actually sort out an exact face or a body structure of a person for this role but after Sahal started this role, he was perfectly suitable in every aspect for Imran’s role. His innocent face could make audience love him & support his character throughout the sequence even when he’s being mugged, audience may feel bad about him being the victim & getting dragged into all of it. Sahal took the role of Imran to another level which is a gifted technique to only some actors. On the location Sahal brought great energy when he was rehearsing and shooting. In content to the movie Sahal was the perfect choice. Sahal with his experience told us a lot about different techniques to get the best out of a character.

Dacoits:

Bilal- Gul Abbas

Gul Abbas is 24 years old, completing his masters from LSE. Gul was always considered for the role of a dacoit, we never had any doubt about that because of his rough looks but the real issue was that in which Dacoit’s role he would look better. Gul is not a professional or experienced actor like Sahal but no doubt he is a talented guy with some natural acting skills. Firstly, Gul was up for the role of Bilal but then we swapped both dacoits as an experiment but that failed as Gul didn’t have that voice power that was needed for the role of Usama. Gul with his creepy expressions & intense movement justified his character. Even though he had the least dialogues of all three

characters but his job of supporting his fellow dacoit & keeping a Lookout while Bilal was to do the mugging, Gul did that perfectly.

Bilal- Muaz Sheikh

Muaz is again an LSE student completing his masters with Gul Abbas. Muaz, could be said was the hardest piece of puzzle as casting his character was the most difficult of all. Firstly, Muaz was considered for the role of Imran because of his looks & body structure. Muaz was supposed to be the protagonist but could not carry the burden of leading the whole cast to the conclusion maybe because he lacked

experience or the fact that Sahal outclassed him in the role of Imran. But, however next thing we know that we had to use him as a dacoit & again the issue arose was that which dacoit will Muaz play Bilal or Usama. Now, after a lot of discussions & rehearsals we finally allotted him the role of Bilal. Bilal’s character needed to be loud enough to scare or threaten Imran when mugging him. Muaz lacked experience so we had to work on his acting skills but with the passage of time Muaz improved & certainly justified his character in front of the camera with his silent mysterious looks. Muaz spoke from his eyes when threatening Imran & that was amazing, he had this look of fear which made him perfect for the role of Bilal.