Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Actress Sanam Saeed has murder on her mind

Actress Sanam Saeed has murder on her mind

PAKISTANI STAR DELVES INTO HER ‘DEADLY’ SIDE IN NEW DRAMA AND DISCUSSES THE PROCESS OF PLAYING AN EVIL CHARACTER

WHETHER it is cinema, short films, drama serials, theatre, or fashion, Sanam Saeed has consistently shown that she is magnificent at making great choices.


Her latest masterstroke is deciding to be part of explosive new anthology series Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam. The game-changing ZEE5 drama about murderous Pakistani women has received rave reviews since its recent premiere and features standout performances from a strong star cast. The dark drama adds to a superb list of memorable projects the unpredictable actress has starred in and continues an impressive journey she has been on.

Eastern Eye caught up with her to discuss Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam, the art of being fearless and why she rejected Hollywood. You make great choices.

Sanam Saeed in Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam credit ZEE5 COVER 3 e1640267259674

How do you select creative projects?

Because of my family, parents, and the support system I have had. The kind of women I’ve been used to seeing, that I’ve grown up with and around. When I’m given a script, I go towards roles I can relate to. If they are not roles I can relate to, then they are ones that give hope and a voice to women, because I’m from a house where women had a voice – loud and clear – without having to bash men to get their way. Kind of like walking side by side.

You are always stepping out of comfort zones. Do you like that fear?

What’s my comfort zone, Asjad?

Projects that really challenge you?

You know, no one has really seen the theatre stuff that I’ve done. For me, that is stepping out of my comfort zone. These roles I do, most of them, whether it’s Pakistani television dramas, movies like Cake or this, they are kind of roles I really resonate with and relate to because they are all shades of an independent, vocal, confident, and educated woman, who doesn’t have to depend on anyone else for anything. She’s quite capable, which is what I am, and I think these roles are all shades of me.

What would be challenging?

So, challenging would be song and dance, also challenging would be really changing my body language, my voice and maybe shave my hair off for something, and making some physical change. That would be challenging. The roles I’ve been doing so far, I think are just pieces of me.

What did you like about Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam

It’s an anthology. It’s fun and completely disconnected. It’s connected through the story, but we, as actors, were completely disconnected. I haven’t worked with any of them. Our stories didn’t relate to one another. They just overlap from episode to episode, just like you could pick up the thread in the script, but, otherwise, (my character) Zuvi was particularly fun. I have played a vixen before and a negative character once or twice, but with this there is no negative or positive character. These characters are stars of their show and that I have never done.

Tell us about that?

You know, where the main protagonist was just pure, I want to see evil, just because we take people’s lives and that’s not a good thing, but the process or reason why they do it, the motivating factors behind it are really fun because they are really selfish, bad and self-indulgent.

What about your character?

In my episode, its not to save her own life or in self-defence. Or because she was wronged in the name of justice. Does she take justice into own hands and control of a situation? No! It’s that she wants a situation to go her way. She’s the kind of person that will do anything to make sure her picture-perfect life is not tainted or tampered with. It’s just fun. I don’t think I’ve ever played a role like that, when there’s no reason for anything and it’s just selfish desire.

Does it put pressure on you when you’re a part of such a strong star cast?

No, it doesn’t put any pressure; it just makes it really exciting to be acting with such a great star cast. You just know that every episode is going to be phenomenal, different, and surprising because each actor has a million tricks up their sleeve. I think it will be really interesting to see how each actor plays these characters. Even in the previous web series ZEE5 did, Churails, it was amazing to see Sarwat (Gilani) really come out and play her role the way she did because you don’t see those kinds of characters on TV or films over here, or even in India. To see these amazing actresses in challenging roles is exciting.

Churails and now Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam are incredibly ground-breaking…

I don’t want to compare the two, but that was obviously going to happen because we haven’t seen such a fierce female- driven badass content in a while from south Asia, not just Pakistan. Churails was more about women taking justice into their own hands. This one is a murder mystery thriller. Femme fatale genre is not the same as Churails. This is about psycho killers on a killing spree just because they feel like it and feel that they have been wronged in some way. I can only speak for my character – she did it just because she liked it and wanted to do it. Just because she wanted to make sure that nothing comes in her way. She was not justified at all and should be behind bars.

How do you prepare for a killer character so far removed from you?

I love murder mysteries, and the femme fatale genre in old Hollywood was always something I enjoyed watching. Sharon Stone and Glenn Close were like perfect examples of the femme fatales in their films. It was just interesting to draw from memory of how beautiful women use their femininity and seductiveness to get what they want. How they can have anyone eating out of the palm of their hand if they feel like it. How they fine tune people, particularly men, and that was interesting. I just drew from old Hollywood films I remembered seeing and just understanding how a woman uses her womanhood to kind of manipulate people.

Would you say that you’re fearless?

Yes, I am fearless.

Where does that come from and is that again from your upbringing?

Yes, from my mother. My mother is not alive, but she’s someone who broke the stereotypes and was from a conservative Memon family but married outside the family and society. She went to a co-ed school and to study in America. She was the youngest of three brothers and always had to fight with her parents to be like them. She was like, ‘don’t treat me differently because I’m a girl. I’m just like them’. So, a lot of her influences my life. She was 5’11. I think a tall woman is intimidating for anyone.

Will you make a New Year’s resolution?

No, I think I’m doing everything that I want to. I don’t think I need to add to the list right now. My New Year’s resolution would be to focus on what I’m doing.

I love the choices you make, even with your short films and fashion. What’s the master plan going forward?

Thank you, Asjad! I just want to continue doing different kinds of roles that make people laugh, cry, fall in love or get scared by. I just want to keep shocking people, entertaining people and connecting with people.

Is there a role you would love to do?

I would love to do a biopic. On whom, I’m not sure, but I think it will be really fun to study someone and get into their shoes. I think it’s a completely different process doing a biopic because you’ve got so much to draw from. You don’t have to draw from anywhere else and have to embody a person. So, hopefully, one day we’ll come up with a biopic (for me) in Pakistan.

If there is one star from Pakistan, who could make it internationally, including Hollywood, it is you. Is that something that you would consider?

I’ve had some opportunities in Hollywood. But there is one line I’m not comfortable crossing and that is being intimate. Going to Bollywood and wearing tiny clothes for an item number is also something I wouldn’t do. I don’t have anything against it. It’s just that I live in Pakistan and come from here. I have built a career and image here. I have really sunk my teeth deep into the roots and culture over here. As much as I tried to show different sides of a culture, intimate scenes are something that I don’t ever want to break into.

Tell us more about that…

Just for one movie. I don’t want to break years of effort I put in. It took a long time for women before me to pave the way for people like me to come in. Then my generation has to pave the way for future generations, so I wouldn’t want to break that. I was told in Hollywood the protagonists have to kiss. That is Hollywood and its great. I love seeing it on screen and you fall in love with the characters. If one day Hollywood doesn’t need that and it’s not a deal-breaker, I’ll be there.

www.zee5.com

More For You

Kanpur 1857 play

This summer, Niall Moorjani returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with 'Kanpur: 1857'

Pleasance

Niall Moorjani brings colonial history to life with powerful new play 'Kanpur: 1857'

This summer, Niall Moorjani returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Kanpur: 1857, an explosive new play that fuses biting satire, history and heartfelt storytelling. Written, co-directed and performed by Moorjani, alongside fellow actor and collaborator Jonathan Oldfield, the show dives into the bloody uprising against British colonial rule in 1857 India, focusing on the brutal events in Kanpur.

At its centre is an Indian rebel, played by Moorjani, strapped to a cannon and forced to recount a version of events under the watchful eye of a British officer.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lubna Kerr Lunchbox

Scottish-Pakistani theatre-maker Lubna Kerr returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with 'Lunchbox'

Instagram/ lubnakerr

Beyond curries and cricket: Lubna Kerr’s 'Lunchbox' challenges stereotypes at Edinburgh Fringe

Acclaimed Scottish-Pakistani theatre-maker Lubna Kerr returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with Lunchbox – the final instalment of her deeply personal and widely praised ‘BOX’ trilogy, following Tickbox and Chatterbox.

Inspired by her own upbringing as a Pakistani immigrant girl in Glasgow, Lunchbox is a powerful one-woman show that tackles themes of identity, race, bullying and belonging through the eyes of two teenagers growing up on the same street but living vastly different lives. With humour, honesty and heart, Kerr brings multiple characters to life, including her younger self and a troubled classmate, as she explores whether we are shaped by our environment or capable of breaking the cycle.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tawseef Khan

Based on Khan’s lifelong proximity to immigration law

Instagram/ itsmetawseef

Tawseef Khan brings together justice and fiction in his powerful debut novel

Tawseef Khan is a qualified immigration solicitor and academic who made his literary debut with the acclaimed non-fiction book Muslim, Actually. His first novel Determination, originally published in 2024 and now available in paperback, brings his legal and creative worlds together in a powerful, emotionally rich story.

Set in a Manchester law firm, Determination follows Jamila, a 29-year-old immigration solicitor juggling frantic client calls, family expectations and her own wellbeing. Based on Khan’s lifelong proximity to immigration law, including his father starting a practice from their living room, the novel explores the human cost of a broken system with compassion, wit and clarity.

Keep ReadingShow less
Iman Qureshi’s play confronts
‘gay shame’ with solidarity

Iman Qureshi

Iman Qureshi’s play confronts ‘gay shame’ with solidarity

A NEW play looks at the cultural divisions in society, especially in the West, and shows how people can still come together and build a community even if they don’t always agree, its playwright has said.

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, by Iman Qureshi, follows a group of women, mostly lesbians, who come together to sing in a choir, while sharing their lives, making new friendships, experiencing love, and finding humour during their time spent together. Themes of identity, politics and personal struggles are explored in the story.

Keep ReadingShow less
20 Years of Sarkar: Amitabh Bachchan’s Defining Gangster Role

The 2005 film Sarkar explored power, loyalty, and justice in Mumbai’s underworld

India Glitz

20 years of 'Sarkar': Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic turn in a gangster epic

Dharmesh Patel

There have been many Hindi cinema projects inspired by Hollywood films, and Sarkar ranks among the finest. The brooding political crime drama, which paid tribute to the epic 1972 gangster film The Godfather, became a gritty, homegrown tale of power, loyalty and justice.

Directed by Ram Gopal Varma and set in Mumbai’s morally murky corridors of influence, the film centred on Subhash Nagre – a man feared, respected and mythologised. Played with majestic restraint by Amitabh Bachchan, the story followed Nagre’s control over the underworld, political power centres and a grey zone where justice was delivered through unofficial means. His sons, the hot-headed Vishnu (Kay Kay Menon) and the more composed Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan) – became central to this tale of betrayal, legacy and redemption.

Keep ReadingShow less