...Instep: Okay now onto Khuda Kay Liye…how did it come about? Who approached you?
FK: What happened is, before the movie's shoots began, a friend of mine (Bilal Lashari) was assisting Shoaib Mansoor and one day he rang me up and said: 'Yaar aik movie ki shoot start honay wali hai so why don't you come down and give an audition'? And around that time there was a lot of hype about the film – everyone knew that Junaid Jamshaid and Ali Zafar were due to feature in it…but nothing was finalized just yet. So I went immediately after I'd gotten engaged – and around that time, I was this big (fat) ball – so I went and met him but his objection was that I was a little...uh…fat.
Instep: Fat?! But you're far from fat!
FK: At that time I was…my waist had gone upto about 38 inches. So he [Shoaib Mansoor] took one look at me and said: "You look fit to play the role of a grandfather!"
Instep: He said THAT?!
FK: That's not he said exactly, but that's what he meant and that's how I interpreted it. So anyway, he goes; okay then we'll meet some other time perhaps for another project or something. So I said sure, shook hands with him and walked off.
Instep: Were you disappointed?
FK: No because I hadn't gone in with any expectations…it was totally on the spur of the moment and was all very spontaneous. Anyway I went back, and around that time I was working for the Kashf Foundation, but then six months down the line…once the shooting of the film had started, I got a call from Bilal asking me to come back since Ali Zafar had quit. And so I went back, and three days before the actual shoot was to begin, I got my script and we just started. That's it. And infact by that time I'd lost weight and when Shoaib saw me, he was like: now you look fine!
Instep: When all of you were in the midst of recording, did you guys realize how big the film was going to be? Because till today local cinema houses showing the film are still being booked in advance with its tickets being sold out…
FK: Actually no we didn't know that – but the two very big reasons as to why it's been so big is yes, the film's content, and more importantly, the marketing and promotion of the film. I didn't have any doubts of it being any less that good since it had Shoaib Mansoor's name associated with it but I didn't know what the outcome would be.
Instep: In comparison to Jutt & Bond, what was your experience like as an actor between the sitcom and Shoaib's film?
FK: Jutt & Bond was a very loud, slapstick TV sitcom. And (chuckles), Khuda Kay Liye is a dead serious film! That's a really weird comparison (laughs) why'd you come up with that?!
Instep: No no, because you took a whole 360 degree turn – from a comedic character to a role which is very intense!
FK: Yeah but Jutt & Bond was six years ago and it was just all of us friends 'working' and having fun together…but I was a little thrown off balance because I'd done the sitcom years ago and now I had to face a 35mm camera, don a beard and had to look like a very serious person. That was the challenge I guess, and yes I was nervous…it got my knees knocking, because you're hearing the camera's roll and everyone's looking at you – dead quiet and dead serious waiting for you to say your lines. Shoaib was also conservative about having re-takes and so surprisingly our take ratio was something like one to one.
Instep: Did you all actually go to Afghanistan for that particular scene in the movie?
FK: It wasn't Afghanistan but a beautiful place called Parachinar somewhere near Abottabad – it actually hits the Afghan border. And yes we were scared witless at a point, when we heard that a moulvi in the local mosque had announced a fatwa against us there. They didn't know what we were shooting though but they got very ticked off when we were around… they tolerated it for seven days and luckily the day they'd announced the fatwa, we had packed up and were ready to leave.
Instep: What about the women – those three little girls who were in the village scene?
FK: They were actual actors from Peshawar.
Instep: Was the entire filming process very tiring?
FK: Yes it actually was very tiring… because we had been shooting the film for like; two years… the reason being that something or the other would always go wrong. But the actual shooting of the film was only two months.
Instep: And in addition it took a whole year of editing right?
FK: Not just the editing, also the 'washing' of the film, putting it together, then editing it, the sound, the dubbing, yes it took in totality about three years. And on some level, we had stopped anticipating the film's release…uptil the last day. But yeah after I saw the film at the Karachi premier, I was overwhelmed.
[At this point Fawad looks at the window worriedly.]
Instep: Don't worry, that isn't an earthquake…they're making the road outside…it's the steamroller!
FK: Yeah that's what I was wondering.
Instep: There's this particular scene in the film where you throttle this guy with a gun – how did you prepare yourself for 'getting into the mood' and making that come across as 'real' rather than just 'acting'?
FK: Well first of all it was as hot as hell and automatically (laughs) it made me exhausted…but on top of that…I just put myself into the character's shoes and performed.
Instep: And what feedback have you gotten from your friends and family about the film so far?
FK: Of course they're all pretty happy for me – but it's not as if I've conquered some big moral issue…I mean there was a time when [the issues brought up in the film] got to me, but now I've just stopped feeling that way, because what's meant to happen, will. I mean when you have a system that's politically challenged, getting into a whole debate about it is pretty pointless to me.
Instep: I know this sounds so clichéd – but the film does portray a clash of ideologies, what's your take on this?
FK: A clash of ideologies, sure – but the 'moderates' who've been objecting to the clergy and having certain notions about the 'mullahs' and imposing things on them, why then, are the liberals being hypocrites by saying that the orthodox are impressing upon them? It works both ways. It's like you're responding in exactly the same manner as they are by stating: what we're saying is right, and what they're stating is wrong. So basically, the 'moderate Muslim' is also a mullah. My whole take is that we should quit pointing fingers and blaming each other – just cut it at that yaar…end of story and live peacefully.
Instep: Were you nervous about the fact that Khuda Kay Liye was released as the Lal Masjid siege was being wrapped up?
FK: Yes! I was. Especially when I heard that the mosque had raised a fatwa against the film. And uptil now in totality we've gotten 3-4 fatwas, so we're pretty used to it, if we get another one now, we're like: oh okay!
But yeah at that time I was nervous because I thought people would react badly to the film but nothing happened. Pakistanis aren't as 'animalistic' as the Western media portrays us to be.
) 
they also really enjoyed the movie. 
I am soooo suprised
