The shorts will kick off with SHAHVAAR which revolves around a female centric plot aiming for women empowerment and to pull the curtains from the unrealistic societal expectations faced by women in our society. The plot is not completely revealed as it is in final stages of concept and story development but we sure are excited to see SHAHVAAR as a torch bearer of positive and strong image of her gender in Pakistan.
SHAHVAAR is being directed by Umair Najeeb Khan, who very recently directed the short fashion film Woh Aas in collaboration with designer Tabassum Mughal that was very well received. According to Rafay the casting is underway and the shoot commences in March.
The feature film Raat Ke Baad will be a horror carousel and is expected to be out in 2018. We talked to Director Rafay Rashdi about his upcoming venture, he said;
"The projects are spread over a time period of a year. These products will cover five different genres including comedy, action, supernatural, thriller and fantasy. We have Adla Badli for comedy genre, Roti, Kapra aur Shaitaan for action genre and Hour for fantasy apart from Raat Ke Baad and SHAHVAAR.
We were eager to know what Cygnis media’s role in these projects is. Speaking to the co-founder and CEO of Cygnis Media, Ahmed Hashim:
"Cygnis' role with 1nfluence will be in the digital realm of film making, including animation, visual effects and virtual reality development, to name just a few key pieces which will be involved in the upcoming five projects being showcased. The goal is to leverage our expertise and add a unique twist to the way people will engage with, and consume the content. We feel that Pakistan is primed for the streaming revolution to take over and are excited to be early adopters in that space. In today's day and age, digital consumption is the ultimate frontier, and Cygnis Media is on board to maximise the digital footprints of these projects.