Originally posted by: hypnotoad
this is an ensemble led by maya. it is sadaf's story and her journey we are seeing. ammar and bilal are literally options a and b sadaf chooses between and are equal opportunity cktrs.
bilal has no friends, no family. his career as a hotelier and industry titan gets no airtime. his backstory and trauma is not explored at all and only used as a plot device to further sadaf's arc. any conversation bilal has with humsha is about sadaf. he has no tracks of his own independent of sadaf. that is not how central protagonists are written.
haseeb has padded wahaj's screentime by adding all those filler scenes of BA sulking, soch-ing, brooding - kabhi khambe se latakte huey, while fondling glasses and lamps, leaning against cars, walls and windows, sitting in bed, lying in various sofas, sitting by the pool, in the garden, on the table, on a chair. paiano bajate huey. stumbling and strolling down the stairs and hallways. then we have the hero entry and power walks.
forget the marketing. take out the filler scenes and beauty shotsm and think bilal is played by mikaal. nothing else is changed in the writing and filming. no one will even question for a second that bilal is not the central protagonist. if the writing doesn't have you as the central protagonist, no amount of filler scenes and hero entries and fake marketing will make you the central cktr.
Wahaj is the central protagonist same way Sunny Deol was central protagonist in Darr
Wahaj is the central protagonist same way Shahid was central protagonist in Padmavat
Wahaj is the central protagonist same way Faris Shafi was central protagonist in Mann Jali
Being a good guy who gets the girl is not what is meant by central protagonist from a narrative perspective
i understand what you said. another character can be more signficant to the story but the main protagonist is more likeable (in terms of audience support).

another character can be more likeable, even the one who gets the girl, but the main protagonist is the one who drives the story, whose character transformation and journey we see, the one whom the story is centered around. that main protagonist can be male, female, good or bad.
The offscreen drama usama and hira provided in last two weeks will have more trps than their characters in smd
I really liked how he got angry. Sadaf needs reality check from him how to be professional and ammar needs a kick from bilal.