KUALA LUMPUR: The crew of producer Fazil Teh’s new drama Sara Sajeeda have been “stuck” in Pakistan since April 1.
Fazil, whose company Zeel Production, is filming the drama in the northern Pakistani city of Lahore, said that they were forced to delay their return home as a result of the country’s recent border skirmishes with India.
“We were supposed to be back in Kuala Lumpur on April 1, but our flight was cancelled. In fact several flights between Malaysia and Pakistan have suffered the same fate, and the next available flight will be April 16,” he said in a news report yesterday.
The crew, including Fazil, director Eoon Suhaimi and main actress Tiz Zaqyah, have been in Pakistan since March 1.
Fazil said actors Fahrin Ahmad and Tasha Shilla were supposed to fly to Pakistan for filming this week, but their flight had also been cancelled. They were supposed to join Tiz and Pakistani stars Arslan Asad Butt and Anmol Baloch for several scenes in Lahore.
“For now, Eoon and I have only been able to shoot scenes involving Tiz, Arslan and Anmol. If scenes involving Tiz, Fahrin and Tasha cannot be filmed in Pakistan, we might have to shoot them elsewhere.”
The border skirmishes between Pakistan and India happened last Feb 14 in Indian-ruled Kashmir and are on-going.
They stemmed from a suicide car bombing carried out that day in which 40 Indian security personnel were killed.
A week later, India and Pakistan conducted air strikes against targets in each other’s territory.
Sara Sajeeda, with 30 episodes, will be screened on TV3’s Samarinda slot later in the year.
Trailer of Sara Sajeeda