Sanam Saeed Doesn't Want Zindagi Gulzar Hai Sequel, Says 'Fawad Khan and I Don't Like...' | Exclusive

About 12 years after Zindagi Gulzar Hai made them household names, Sanam Saeed Mirza and Fawad Khan are all set to return to our screens with Zee5’s Barzakh. Despite being a story very local in its essence, Zindagi Gulzar Hai enjoys a massive fandom all over the world today, including India. Considering its popularity, one would expect the makers to come up with a sequel to the television series.

But in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Sanam reveals that there are slim chances of the same. She tells us, “A sequel to the same wouldn’t offer the same magic because now they’re married. And once Zaroon and Kashaf (their characters in the show) are married, it will be boring. They’ve children by now and I doubt they have the same nok-jhol waala romance.”

Sanam adds, “It’s important to not drag something that did well. I’m not particularly a fan of sequels or remakes of something that’s already been done. I like to savour and hold on to those precious moments and shows and move on to the next one.”

So, were there moments when they reminisced about the old times during the shoot of Barzakh? “No (laughs)! That was ten years ago. I don’t think we like dwelling on the past. We shook hands and were happy to work together again. We braced ourselves for people’s reaction and tried our best to do something different,” Sanam states.

Interestingly, after Barzakh, Sanam and Fawad will be seen in Netflix’s first Pakistani original, Jo Bachay Hain Sang Samait Lo, and a SonyLIV original titled Shandur. Spilling the beans on them, she shares, “In one of them, the dynamic is similar to Zindagi Gulzar Hai. And yet the approach is different, the feel is different. If anything, we discussed how to not go back there.”

The Cake and Churails actor continues, “People want to see Zaroon and Kashaf’s dynamic but the idea was to make it more modernised, contemporary, and relatable. Zindagi Gulzar Hai was released ten years ago and was written another ten years ago. You don’t want to keep regurgitating the same thing. We’re different people today. We’ve evolved as human beings and actors.”

Sanam is very clear about taking up a role that’s far removed from Kashaf as it took her a while to get it out of her system. “Audience ko humein Zaroon and Kashaf jaise dekhne ka khushi doosre projects se mil jaayegi but it was important for both of us to do Barzakh. It took me more than three years to shed the image of Kashaf,” she says.

Prod her further and she remarks, “I started thinking that I’m Kashaf and that people can only see me as that character and not understand me as anyone else. It was hard for me to pick up any other role because Kashaf was so strong. Zaroon’s role was equally strong. So, I knew that if Fawad and I work together again, we’ll have to somehow break our image of Zaroon and Kashaf in some way.”