Saaya is a 2018 Pakistani horror drama television series directed by Syed Muhammad Khurram, produced by Babar Javed and written by Wajeeha Sahar. The drama stars Maham Amir, Sohail Sameer and Kiran Tabeer in lead roles, and premiered on Geo Entertainment. The theme of the series is karma.
In 2021, serial was released on the network's sister channel Geo Kahani. Its second season titled "Saaya 2" premiered on 6 May 2022, on Geo Entertainment. The second season stars Mashal Khan, Momina Iqbal and Danial Afzal Khan.
Plot
The drama revolves around a girl named Sauleha who lives with her husband Rashid and his family. Sauleha is pressured by her mother-in-law to give birth to a son or she will no longer have place in the house. Sauleha has two daughters and falls pregnant with a boy who is exchanged with a girl by a nurse Qayoom who is desperate for a son. The mother-in-law is forced to keep Sauleha in the house by Rashid but the mother does not give up and so her and her niece decide do black magic on her making Sauleha have a mental illness and then make a plan to kill Sauleha. They push her off the roof explaining it was her committing suicide. Rashid is forced to get married to Saba but he does not accept her as his wife but Saba does not like it. Sauleha starts to haunt the people in the house and once everyone knows about the supernatural presence they stay aware but Sauleha disturbs Saba and Rashid thinks that Saba has an illness. Sauleha continues to haunt the people in the house protecting her daughters and soon reaches out to Qayoom and decides to irritate her.
Series overview
Cast
Main cast
Maham Amir as Sauleha
Sohail Sameer as Rashid
Kiran Tabeir as Saba
Faizan Shaikh as Sajid
Mizna Waqas as Raheela
Ghana Ali as Maheen
Recurring cast
Sumbul Shahid as Ateeqa; Rashid, Sajid and Shela's mother
Hajra Khan as Shela; sister of Rashid and Sajid
Saleem Iqbal as Hamid; Rashid, Sajid and Shela's father
Saleem Mairaj as Shams; a spiritual scholar
Falaq Naz as Rafiqa; Saba's mother
Usman Patel as Ishaq; Saba's brother and Maheen's husband
Sana Pervaiz as Ghana; Saba's friend and Sajid's wife
Sana Humayun as Dr.Areesha
Wahaj Ahmed as Qayuum; Raheela's husband
Zulfikar Ali as Waseem; Shela's husband
Salma Qadir as Rifat; Shela's mother in law
Vasia Fatima
Child cast
Khushi Maheen as Pinky(Rashid/Sauleha’ 2nd daughter
Bakhtawar Rasheed as Guriya(Rashid/Sauleha’s 1st daughter) Anabia as Shafaq (Rashid/Sauleha’s 3rd daughter but actually this is Qayum/Raheela’s daughter Sameer as Ahsan (Shela/Waseem’s son) Sania Zehra as Laraib – (Qayum/Raheela’s 1st daughter) Hoorain as Manahil (Qayum/Raheela’s 2nd daughter) Alizay as Sidra (Qayum/Raheela’s 3rd daughter) Akbar as Akbar (Qayum/Raheela’s 4th son who is actually Rashid/Sauleha’s son who the nurse swapped with their daughter)
Production
In September 2017, Syed Mohammad Khurram started shooting officially for his horror series "Jinn" which changed to "Saaya" afterwards. Faysal Manzoor headed the project whereas Wajiha Sehar written the script for the series. Shooting for the series started in September 2017 and it had to be launched in January 2018 but due to nikah of two stars of the series Maham Amir and Faizan Shaikh, shooting and editing was interrupted. Later it was launched in March 2018.
It was slated to go off air after 55 episodes but due to positive reviews and feedbacks, it was extended with new storyline which was produced by Erfan Ghanchi of Blue Eye Entertainment who previously produced Naagin. Lollywood actress Ghana Ali joined the cast on extension. The serial was concluded on 21 November 2018 with a two hour long episode.
Release
The series was announced to premiere on 7 March 2018 but was delayed due to editing issues and premiered on 21 March on Wednesday at 9:00 pm. It airs thrice a week with the duration of one hour. The drama was previously titled as ‘Jin’ but changed afterward. During Ramadan, the channel reduced its running time to half an hour from 9:15 pm to 9:50 pm. From 20 June it returned to Wednesday to Friday at 9:00 pm with one-hour episodes, but after extension the show aired on Wednesday 9:00 pm due to delay in shooting issues. The series was among the top horror shows of 2018.