The two female leads of Wangi talk about their experience filming the movie originally made for TV
FOR award-winning actress Erra Fazira, little did she know that her character Nor in the movie Wangi would deal with more than just a cheating husband.
“At first, I thought it was just the usual family drama dealing with husband-and-wife conflict,” says the actress who had just returned from her haj in Makkah.
“It was only when we were about to begin filming that I realised there were gory scenes involved. By then, the deal had already been signed, so like it or not, I could not pull out from the project,” recounts the 45-year-old with a laugh.
The horror movie follows the story of Nor who has just returned home after giving birth to her first child.
During her confinement, she is cared for by her mother.
She also realises that her good friend Bella (Nabila Huda), from her university days in the United Kingdom whom she also regards as her sister, has gone missing.
When she asks her husband Khuzairi (Sharnaaz Ahmad) about it, he tells her that Bella has left and returned to the UK to get married.
Nor, however, finds this suspicious as Bella has never talked to her about any plans of marrying her boyfriend Azlan (Syazwan Zulkifly).
At the same time, strange things begin to happen to Nor and her family.
Despite agreeing that the movie is not something she would usually be involved in, she adds that her character in Wangi is an interesting one, as it is that of a mother who has to deal with emotional conflicts.
“I’ve had experience working with director Yeop Hitler (Mohd Latif Zami) in the past, but this time, due to the script, he expected something a little different from all of us.
“He gave me freedom to give the character Nor my interpretation. However, he made sure that my character development ran parallel with the storyline.”
Erra believes that besides a good story, acting alongside a great cast has been a good experience while filming last September.
“I hope Wangi will be well-received especially my fans who have missed me on the silver screen for some time now,” says Erra of the movie which was originally made for TV.
According to the producer Shuhada Mohd from Resilience Studio, it was only after going through the editing that it occurred to her and the team that it could be released for the big screen; the story is good and the cast consisted of reputable names in the industry.
“This is not just another typical horror story, but a psycho-thriller,” says Shuhada of the work, which was also filmed in Manchester and Liverpool in the UK.
Meanwhile, award-winning actress Nabila says she was initially a little starstruck to be paired with Erra.
“While I was comfortable with most of the others in the lineup, it did make me feel a little nervous to be acting alongside Erra, but things simply went well as filming progressed,” shares the 34-year-old. Nabila says there were few challenges playing Bella.
“It was straightforward. I only had to play with emotions and facial expressions.
“It’s not to say I wasn’t satisfied with the role or film, it’s just that there was nothing which made me go ‘wow, how do I go about it playing this scene’.”
At the time of filming, nobody had any inkling that it would be released on the big screen, so there was less pressure for the cast.
“When I heard from the producers that it would be released in cinemas, I was just as pleasantly surprised as everyone else,” adds Nabila.
Wangi is showing in cinemas.