Sanam (TV series)

Sanam
Genre	Family Drama Romance
Written by	Mona Haseeb[1]
Directed by	Haseeb Hassan
Starring	Osman Khalid Butt Hareem Farooq Maya Ali
Country of origin	Pakistan
Original language(s)	Urdu
No. of episodes	12 as of 28th November 2016
Production
Producer(s)	Momina Duraid
Camera setup	Multi-Camera
Production company(s)	MD Productions
Release
Original network	Hum TV
Original release	12 September 2016 (2016-09-12)

Sanam (Urdu: صنم‎; lit: Beloved) is a 2016 Pakistani television series that premiered on Hum TV on September 12, 2016. It is written by Mona Haseeb and directed by Haseeb Hassan and produced by Momina Duraid.^[1] The story of serial is told in a heavily serialized manner and it follows a Love Triangle. It revolves around life of Harib who got married with Ayla in his early Twenties, after meeting Aan, the series encounters his journey where he finds out the difference between a life partner and a soul mate. The show was first aired on Hum tv, as a part of night programming all under Duraid's production company.

Sanam has an ensemble cast with Osman Khalid Butt as Harib, Maya Ali as Aan, and Hareem Farooq as Ayla in leading roles,^[2][3] with the supporting cast Hina Khawaja Bayat, Gul-e-rana, Abid Ali, Asad Ali, Sharmeen Ali and Akbar Islam.^[1] The show is set in Karachi, Sindh. Sanam premiered in Pakistan, UK, USA and UAE with same premier date and timings.

Premise

Sanam depicts Harib's (Osman Khalid Butt) journey, who lost his parents at a very young age and struggled to become a rich businessman. He marries his girlfriend Ayla (Hareem Farooq) and reveals his former relationship with Sara (Shermeen Ali) who had left him due to his low financial status long ago. Simultaneously, Aan (Maya Ali) is a hardworking independent woman who moves next to Harib's house with her mother Shabnam (Hina Khawaja Bayat) after her father's death. In Shabnam's in-laws, Shama Qureshi (Gul-e-Rana) her sister-in-law wants Aan to marry her son Khurram.

After Harib and Aan's first meeting, Ayla begins to react negatively which reveals to Harib her bipolar disorder from which she has been suffering after her mother's second marriage. She assumes that Harib and Aan are in a relationship. She scolds Aan and her mother, and finally leaves Harib to live in his friend Shehroze's (Emaad Irfani) apartment. To make things more complicated, Ayla decides to marry Shehroze who rejects her proposal. Later, Ayla takes a divorce from Harib and moves to her parents' home forgetting her past.

After his divorce, Harib gets consoled by Aan and her mother who treats him as her son. With time, Aan and Harib become best friends. Sara (Harib's ex girlfriend) moves in Harib's street. After meeting him, she realizes that Harib is now a successful person. She tells Harib about her separation with her husband Faisal. Aan bonds with Sara's stubborn daughter Fatima (Mariyam Khalif) who then changes her negative attitude towards her mother because of her separation with Faisal. Sara begins to develop feelings for Harib again. Looking at Harib and Aan's strong bonding, Sara's jealousy increases and she decides to separate them by arranging a planted marriage proposal for Aan. Simultaneously, complications begin for Shabnam when Shama and her children reach her house and tell her that she cannot get Aan married to anyone else except her cousin.

Sara brings a proposal of her cousin Farhan (Asad Siddiqui) for Aan, which Shabnam accepts. Aan and Farhan get engaged. Harib is devastated but finally confesses his feelings to Aan. Harib's ex-wife Ayla snaps a picture of Aan and Harib together and gets it photoshopped into an obscene photograph that gets circulated around social media. As a result, Aan loses her job at the bank.

Cast

• Osman Khalid Butt as Harib
• Maya Ali as Aan
• Hareem Farooq as Ayla
• Emaad Irfani As Shehroze
• Sharmeen Ali as Sara
• Hina Khawaja Bayat as Shabnam (Aan's mother)
• Asad Siddiqui as Farhan
• Sabahat Bukhari as Farhan's Mother
• Akbar Islam as Mehboob
• Kanwar Nafees as Khurram
• Munawwar Saeed as Sharafat Qureshi (Aan's Taya)
• Lubna Aslam as Ayesha (Ayla's mother)
• Sajeer-ud-din Khalifa as Salman (Ayla's father)
• Abid Ali as Shaukat Ali Qureshi (Dead) (Aan's father)
• Gul E Rana as Shamma Qureshi (Aan's Phuppo)
• Mariyam Khalif as Fatima

Production

Development

Director of series, Haseeb Hassan

Sanam was developed by Hum TV's senior producer Momina Duraid of MD Productions, with director Haseeb Hassan, who was the director of channel's hit series Mann Mayal and Diyar-e-Dil. ^[4] Haseeb returns to direct fourth year in a row since his first project for channel in 2013.^[5][6][4] Screenplay was done by director's wife Mona Haseeb while script composing is done by Muhammad Wasi-ul-Din who previously scripted Diyar-e-Dil. The show approximately airs weekly episode for 35–40 minutes (minus commercials) every Monday.

Casting

Creative head Momina Duraid and director Haseeb Hassan mutually choose the cast,^[1] which includes Osman Khalid Butt, Maya Ali and Hareem Farooq to play the leading roles of Harib, Aan and Ayla respectively. ^[7]Osman Khalid Butt and Maya Ali marked their fourth appearance together as a couple having previously acted in Aik Nayee Cinderella, Aunn Zara and Diyar-e-Dil,^[8][9][10] all of which were commercially and critically successful. Hareem Farooq marked her second appearance with Maya Ali after Diyar-e-Dil. Sanam was Farooq's third collaboration project with Osman Khalid Butt after Diyar-e-Dil where the two shared leading roles and Film Janan where she holds producer credits. Speaking about her character Farooq said, "My character addresses a very serious mental illness which many people fail to diagnose. In fact, it's a global issue in which one who is suffering and the people around them are unable to figure out what is wrong with them."^[3]

Osman Khalid Butt plays the male lead

Sanam is Mayal Ali's third consecutive collaboration with the director having previously worked in Diyar-e-Dil and Mann Mayal,^[11][12] speaking about her third collaboration, director Haseeb Hassan states It wasn't a deliberate decision; we didn't sign all three of the projects together. I'd honestly call it a coincidence. When we got done with Diyar-e-Dil, we started casting for Sanam, and Maya suited the kind of character the script demanded. During Mann Mayal's casting, we approached several actresses but Maya managed to perfectly fit into Mannu's shoes. Besides that, I'll have to agree with the fact that when you work with people who are genuinely hard working, you try to work with them over and over again. ^[1]

Emaad Irfani was finalised to portray the role of Shehroze. Veteran actress Hina Khawaja Bayat was selected to portray the role of Aan's mother Shabnam. Bayat's role was finalised after her collaborations with Haissam Hussain in Aik Nayee Cinderella and Aunn Zara. Actress Lubna Aslam portrayed the role of Ayla's parents whereas veteran actors Munawar Saeed and Gul-e-Rana portray the roles of Shabnam's in-laws.

Filming and Locations

Principal photography began in May 2015 after the completion of Diyar-e-Dil. In late June 2015, the project was delayed since creative head Momina Duraid announced the filming of Mann Mayal^[13] first, where directer Haseeb Hassan chose Maya Ali in leading cast. Furthermore in January 2016, the project was delayed once again since Osman Khalid Butt and Hareem Farooq were promoting their film Janan. Speaking about Sanam's delay, Haseeb Hassan says: We wanted to give some gap between Diyar-e-Dil and Sanam because it also stars Osman Khalid Butt and Maya Ali in lead roles. So releasing another serial with the same couple and team immediately after the first one wouldn't have created the buzz. But now people are dying to see them both together, so it'll start airing in a couple of months, it's a unique love story, with a totally different package.^[1] Filming resumed in August 2016. The series was released before completion. Filming was extensively done in Naya Nazimabad Karachi with Zeb Rao being the cinematographer, Ishtiaq Hussain and Waqar Baloch being the location coordinator, Akbar Baloch being the head of set department and Kashif Ahmed being the head of post production. Graphics were done by Husnain Daswali and Muhammad Furqa Ali Qazi, while editing was done by Jameel Awan, Mahmood Ali and Mohsin.

Episodes

Music

Sanam OST
Soundtrack album by Shuja Haider
Released	10 April 2016 (2016-28-10)
Recorded	2016
Genre	Television soundtrack
Length	04:29
Language	Urdu
Label	M.D Productions
Producer	Momina Duraid

The title song of Sanam was composed by musician Shuja Haider who also did background music with Bilal Allah Ditta and wrote the lyrics. The lines of the song are frequently used during the course of the show. The original sound track was released on September 28, 2016. The song along with production is produced by Momina Duraid under her production company M.D Productions.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Shuja Haider; all music composed by Shuja Haider, Bilal Allah Ditta.

Release

Broadcast

Sanam airs a weekly episode on every Monday succeeding Mann Mayal, with time slot of 8:00 pm.^[14] The show approximately airs weekly episode for 35–40 minutes (without commercials). The series was ordered 24 episodes. It was aired on Hum Europe in UK,^[15] on Hum TV USA in USA^[15] and Hum TV Mena on UAE,^[15] with same timings and premiered date. All International broadcasting aired the series in accordance with their standard times.

References

External links

• Official website
• Sanaml at Hum TV
• Sanam at the Internet Movie Database
• Sanam at TV.com
• Sanam on Facebook