A new controversy is brewing in Pakistan’s entertainment world, and this one has the internet divided. Veteran Lollywood filmmaker Syed Noor has publicly called casting TikTok superstar Jannat Mirza in his film a “disaster”, and now, everyone is waiting to see how Jannat responds.
Syed Noor recently appeared on a television programme where he openly criticised the decision to cast Jannat Mirza in his 2022 Punjabi film Tere Bajre Di Rakhi, saying the film failed to attract audiences despite her massive online following.
Noor did not hold back, saying, “It turned out to be a disaster. People didn’t come to watch it, even though the film was made with a lot of hard work.” He gave a simple reason for the failure: audiences chose to watch Jannat on TikTok for free rather than buy a cinema ticket.
Jannat Mirza, who hails from Faisalabad, is Pakistan’s biggest TikTok personality with over 25 million followers on the platform. Yet all those followers did not translate into cinema seats.
Interestingly, Syed Noor also revealed why he cast her in the first place. He said he cast Jannat because he likes her and has a good relationship with her family, not just for her fan following. He also noted that Jannat comes from an educated and well-off family and was never really interested in becoming a film star, so the film’s failure did not affect her much.
Now the big question is: will Jannat Mirza respond? She has millions of loyal fans who will not stay quiet if they feel their favourite is being unfairly blamed. Another social media war feels very close. The clash between old-school filmmakers and the new digital generation has never been more real, and this time, it is very personal.
