Is Churails championing women’s rights without mincing words?
“Hojayein tayaar, khwateen aur hazraat. Especially hazraat. Jald arahi hain kuch rangeen Churailein, aapki deep-rooted misogyny ki band bajaanay.” –
Asim Abbasi is posting actively about his latest project on Zee5!
The word Churail itself has negative connotations in our society. They say that if you use a negative word often enough, you make it acceptable in society. Is that what Asim Abbasi aims to do with Churails?
“Get ready to witness the revolution brought by HEROES donning BURKAS” posted director Asim Abbasi on Instagram
And there you have it – The first Zindagi original show is all set to break stereotypes. Under its Zindagi segment, the Indian Video on Demand service is to release five Pakistani series, out of which Asim Abbasi’s Churails will be the first original to come out.
CHURAILS will be streaming on Zee5 Global from 11th August onwards. Directed by critically acclaimed film maker, Asim Abbasi, Churails brings together a talented cast led by Sarwat Gilani, Nimra Bucha, Mehar Bano and Yasra Rizvi for this power-packed narrative.
The Thought Behind The Name
She who takes ownership of her life and is unapologetic of her being. She who breaks the glass ceiling and every prejudice that society has created against women. She who is strong, she who is fierce, she stands for what she believes in… she is a ‘CHURAIL’. The show aims to challenge the hypocrisy of patriarchal societies that vanquish women and their rights.
Churails narrates the story of four self-proclaimed Churails who come together to open a covert detective agency to expose cheating husbands amongst the city’s elite. As their operations expand, they come to be saviours of abused, harassed and mistreated women. The gripping and fast-paced storyline covers myriad issues such as child abuse, sexism, domination of class and race.
A Locally Driven Theme With A Global Audience
Director Asim Abbasi says “Zindagi’s commitment to truly original content that has a voice and can transcend borders, has provided me with the perfect platform to create a show like Churails. A story about strong women, embarking on a journey of self-discovery, empowerment and sisterhood, I believe Churails is a timely show with pertinent themes that will resonate with audiences globally.”
Zindagi, launched earlier in India had built a legacy of for itself for presenting stories that are strong, powerful yet relatable. Now launched on ZEE5, the largest streaming platform for South Asians across the globe, the brand’s first original series promises to take this legacy forward. The show comes with a larger purpose of encouraging dialogue on the stigmas associated with strong and empowered women.
“Shows on Zindagi have always been unconventional, real and impactful, I am excited for the audiences’ reaction to the show. There is an increasing need for women’s voices to be heard, and not stereotype fierce women for their strength, or patronize them for their insecurities. Churails is bold, vulnerable and empowering all at the same time. We couldn’t be more proud of Churails being Zindagi’s first original offering and streaming on a global platform like ZEE5”
Shailja Kejriwal, Chief Creative Officer – Special Projects, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.
Asim Abbasi has always chosen to mirror strong female leads as witnessed by his earlier work – Cake. Hence, viewers can look forward to a largely female dominated star cast onscreen.
The Cast
For those who recall Sarwat Gilani for her role as a Pathan woman in Jawani Phir Nahi Aani, this will be an interesting watch. Nimra Bucha in Ho Mann Jahan, Manto and Altered Skin has many stage performances to her credit as well. Nimra recently performed in a strongly female cast on stage play Mushk. Mehar Bano and Yasra Rizvi both have acclaimed productions under their belt. Director Asim Abbasi has thus, has grabbed attention with his cast choices, and audiences, even those wondering whether to subscribe to the Zee 5 app or not, will definitely be curious to know more!
“As a global platform, ZEE5 brings together a massive curation of unique and relatable stories, stories that resonate with audiences, all onto a single global platform. We’re very happy to offer the premium content from Zindagi now on ZEE5 to add even further to this bouquet. As the first Original from Zindagi to go live soon on our platform, we are confident that Churails will be a huge success and strike a deep chord with our viewers across markets”.
Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 Global
Finally, in the words of Asim himself:
“500+ script pages, 150+ locations, 100+ characters, 75+ days of principal photography…. And finally it’s a wrap!
Thank you to everyone who was a part of this insane journey – a journey that broke all of us into a million little pieces, physically, mentally and emotionally. I don’t know if the blood, sweat and tears will show on screen or if the end result will be what we had hoped it would be or if our audiences are even ready for this narrative… But this much I do know:
a) hundreds of people have worked tirelessly for better part of this year, to help craft and visualise this story and I am indebted to each and every one of them.”
Churails will stream on ZEE5, 11th August onwards
ZEE5 is the digital entertainment destination launched by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), a global Media and Entertainment powerhouse. The platform launched across 190+ countries in October 2018 and has content across 18 languages; Hindi, Urdu, English, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi, and now also five international languages -Malay, Thai, Bahasa, German, Russian and Arabic. ZEE5 is home to 100,000 hours of On Demand Content and 60+ live TV channels. The platform brings together the best of Originals, Movies and TV Shows, Music, Cineplays, Live TV and Health and Lifestyle content all in one single destination. ZEE5 offers ground-breaking features like 16 navigational languages, content download option, seamless video playback and Voice Search.
The ZEE5 App can be downloaded from Google Play Store/iOS App Store and is also available on www.ZEE5.com. The app is also available on Samsung Smart TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku devices and Amazon Fire TV.
This article is the collaboration effort of several members of Team FUCHSIA.
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