Sajal Aly to be play Umrao Jaan in her next
Pakistani actress Sajal Aly who is known for her acting prowess will be seeing palying the titular role in the Urdu classic “Umrao Jaan”. The Mirza Hadi Ruswa novel written in 1899 narrates the story of “Ameeran” who was sold to the courtesans at a young age and transformed into “Umrao Jaan Ada”. The story set in time of War of Independence takes you back to the 19th century Indian subcontinent.
As per Variety, the upcoming show will be produced by the Abu Dhabi-based South Asian celebrity management agency, Action Consultancy. Talking to Variety, Hamid Hussain, one of the producers of the series, said, “The film adaptations that had taken creative liberties to fit the story into a film narrative. There is a lot in the novel that has never been shown.” He didn’t want to divulge in too many details however he revealed that this is going to eight-part series and that we should expect “grandeur”.
Talking about choosing Sajal Aly for the role, Hamid Hussain said that, “She was the apt choice to nail the regality and elegance required for someone to be cast in Umrao Jaan.”
This is not the first time that we will see the adaption of the Urdu classic. We have seen numerous Indian and Pakistani versions of it in the past both on film and TV. In Pakistan, we saw film Umrao Jaan in 1979 in which Rani was seeing playing the titular role then we saw its adaption on TV in 2003. In India, Umrao Jaan was created by Muzaffar Ali (1981) with Rekha in the lead role and then in 2006 JP Dutta made the film again with Aishwariya Rai Bachchan playing the Umrao Jaan.
Sajal Aly is known for delivering power packed performances and has many hit projects to her credit. Currently she is being seen with Bilal Abbas Khan is series Kuch Ankahee which has been well received by the audience.