‘Banned’ Javed Iqbal wins two awards at UK Asian Film Festival
Despite being banned in Pakistan, Javed Iqbal won two awards at the UK Asian Film Festival for the best actor and director.
Despite being banned in Pakistan, Javed Iqbal won two awards at the UK Asian Film Festival for the best actor and director.
Yasir Hussain and Ayesha Omar starrer Javed Iqbal: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer had been premiered as the movie on the opening night of the 2022 UK Asian Film Festival which was unfortunately banned in Pakistan.
Director Abu Aleeha announced on Twitter, “At the Asian UK Film Festival, Yasir Hussain won the Best Actor award for Javed Iqbal and Abu Aleeha won the Best Director award. This is the first award received by the film, Javed Iqbal. Insha-Allah, this film will go to every prestigious film festival in the world and will make Pakistan famous.”
پھر ایشین یوکے فلم فیسٹیول میں یاسر حسین کو جاوید اقبال پر بہترین اداکار کا ایوارڈ مل گیا اور ابوعلیحہ کو بہترین ہدایتکار کا۔
فلم جاوید اقبال کو ملنے والے یہ پہلے ایوارڈ ہیں۔ انشااللہ دنیائے فلم کے ہر معتبر فیسٹیول میں یہ فلم جائے گی اور پاکستان کا نام روشن کرکے آئے گی۔ pic.twitter.com/FkTPztJgJJ
— Abu Aleeha (@abualeeha) May 15, 2022
Yasir Hussain said in an Instagram post, “Congratulations to Pakistan. Film Javed Iqbal received two awards at UK Asian Film Festival. One for me as the (best actor) and one for my director, (best director) award to Abu Aleeha. Thank you, Ayesha Omar, missed you.”
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The film’s achievements are not over yet as the movie received an 8.4/10 rating on IMDB.
Ayesha Omar wrote in her post, “Thank you, thank you everyone who felt we were telling this story well. Only a few thousand people have seen the film up till now because it’s still awaiting release in Pakistan by the government and has only been screened at the @ukasianfilmfestival as the opening film for the festival.”
“We want and pray for the whole world and Pakistan to see our hard work and then InshAllah more people will rate the film. God has been very very kind. And the credit goes to the entire team, cast, director and producer of this untold story of a serial killer. We are extremely grateful and we cannot wait for all of you to see it.”
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Following the censor board’s decision, the movie was banned in Pakistan just two days before its nationwide release on January 28.
The movie was later slated to be premiered on May 4 at London’s BFI Southbank.
Javed Iqbal: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer, is based on the investigation against a serial killer who killed 100 young boys in Lahore after subjecting them to sexual abuse and murder.
The movie had already faced several months of postponement which was originally supposed to be released in October last year. The release of the Javed Iqbal movie had been postponed to December 24 last year due to its clearance from the censor boards.
It failed to sail through the censorship process in December last year due to a rise in coronavirus cases, leading to its premiere on January 28 but its release was stopped again.
