Today's SBB Segment - Concept of the Show - Page 2

Bol (Urdu: meaning Speak (or "word/s")) is a 2011 Urdu-language social drama Pakistani film written, directed and produced byShoaib Mansoor. The film stars Humaima Malik, Atif Aslam, Mahira Khan, Iman Ali, Shafqat Cheema, Amr Kashmiri, Manzar Sehbaiand Zaib Rehman in the lead roles. It concerns a religious Muslim family facing financial difficulties caused by too many children and changing times, with a major plot involving the father's desire to have a son and his rejection of his existing transgender male-assigned-at-birth daughter. Bol was a critical and commercial success, and became one of the highest-grossing Pakistani films of all time.^[3]

This film was part of an entertainment education project by The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs(JHU.CCP) which entered in a partnership with Shoaib Mansoor's Shoman Productions in 2009.^[4] The objective of the project was to advocate for women's rights by bringing the focus of media and the elite of Pakistan to family planning and gender issues. The country representative of JHU.CCP, Fayyaz Ahmad Khan, served as the executive director of the movie.^[5] The film was reviewed by the Central Board of Film Censors in Lahore on 8 November 2010 and received its approval the next day.^[6] Bol is set in Lahore and many students from National College of Arts' (NCA) filmmaking department assisted Shoaib Mansoor on it.^[7]