Do the students have their own College Gate group chat? What would be their advice to their 20 year old self? Find out this and more in a FUCHSIA exclusive!
Green Entertainment sure is keeping audiences busy with a great round up of shows. While catering to a diverse age group, College Gate is a drama produced by A & F Productions in association with Multiverse Entertainment. It is directed by Fahim Burney, written by Ateeq Inayat and Ali Sikandar, executive produced by Fasih Ur Rehman.
The drama stars a buzzing young mix of social media sensations, models and artists foraying further into the world of dramas and acting. Zarrar Khan, Natalia Castillo Shahid, Khaqan Shahnawaz, Hina Chaudhry, Mamia Shajaffar, Shuja Asad, Washma Fatima, Nouman Kahout and Asad Chaudhry, Usman Peerzada, Javed Sheikh, Saba Hameed and Nadia Hussain among others.
The Narrative Explored
Post binging Riverdale and Gossip Girl, did you find yourself randomly imagining what would a show based on college students possibly look like in Pakistan? Because as much as we might love to watch those foreign takes, there’s very little we can relate to. The show’s narrative explores the lives of six college students who tackle bullying, financial independence, career, aspirations and the exceeding pressure to step into adulthood.
Team FUCHSIA met up with the College Gate students who were, we might add, serving absolute looks – for a fun chat which includes some interesting revelations, a mix up of their shoot memories along with some inspirational advice.
Complicated First Impressions
On their first impression of each other, they shared something that now, in retrospect, they all laugh about:
Hina: “Mamia and Zarrar and Khaqan already had a strong bond so they lobbied together. We didn’t have that bond and I was meeting everyone for the first time.”
“I would get angry at Khaqan going up to the director and advising him on changes so I thought, you know what, I will too. Once, he ended up advising me on a scene and I went like, excuse me tum director ho? If the director tells me I will do it.” (Hmm, seems like all the students are quite competitive in real life)
Zarrar: “It was an environment where we would all be advising one another. That was something great about the director Fahim because he was open to suggestions.”
“We also felt that they thought we were all grouped together so Natalia had a game with her called – We’re not really strangers, which was the perfect game to play so we called all the cast members to play and that really helped us all bond!”
The College Gate Group Chat
We asked: Every school/college batch has a group chat, do you guys have a College Gate group chat?
The 3 echoed “yes” simultaneously and revealed they still use the now “not so secret” group chat, even after 2 and a half years!
The Memories They Made Together
When asked about some of the memories you made during the shoot of College Gate?
Mamia reminisces in an almost knee jerk reaction: “So many memories!”
Zarrar added: “We made memories of living together for 25 days, sharing meals together, playing games, acting, the fights and we even had a shared bathroom situation! There is a lot!”
Down Memory Lane & Advice To Their 20 Year Old Self
We took it upon ourselves to take a trip down memory lane: What were some of the struggles of your college life and what would be the advice you would want to give to your 20 year old self?
Shuja Asad
For Shuja, it’s fairly simple, he said he would have urged his 20 year old self to: “Just be myself!”
Zarrar Khan
“I would have advised myself to slowdown and live each day like it’s a good experience because it won’t happen again!”
On whether he faced significant struggles as a college student, he said his major struggle was having to wake up at 7 am! (Don’t we all agree?) He continued: “but students have various struggles, paisay bohat kam hotay hain. Saray dost milkay decide kartay thay who would have the most money and who will be treating the rest to biryani! But I was blessed enough to have parents who were supportive of other things I wanted to do at the same time.”
Mamia Shajjar
“I think I would tell my 20 year old self to just trust my gut, I didn’t go through much of a struggle as a college student but maybe being a girl, coming back to university, I felt I needed to ease into the system and the societal norms in place.”
Are you watching College Gate? Do you think it portrays the perils of today’s youth, is an apt representation of their challenges, or … is it a futile attempt at showing what really goes down in the college life of a 20 something in our society?