Fawad Khan’s Pakistani show ‘Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam’ is a partition love story
(Above) Fawad Khan as Hassan and Sanam Baloch as Bano of Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam.
When Haissam Hussain finished directing Daastan, a Pakistani show about Partition, in 2010, he fell into depression for a while and also gained a lot of weight. While the show catapulted him to success; personally the emotional turmoil and the tragedy of the story weighed him down. “The brutal reality and the protagonist’s agony was so real. I decided not to make a show like that again for a long, long time,” says Hussain, over the phone from Lahore, Pakistan.
After much deliberation, the show went on air on Monday on Zindagi channel in India as Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam. Adapted from Pakistani author Razia Butt’s novel titled Bano, the show is set in Ludhiana of 1947. It is the love story of Bano and Hassan in the time of Partition. “In 2009, I debuted as a telefilm director with Muthi Bhar Mitti, and I realised that period dramas are my forte, as I am very interested in history. I wanted to showcase haya or modesty in these old-school romances. Razia sahiba’s novel had all these unsaid details and my imagination ran wild,” he says.
