Tête-À-Tête With Reel Life Motorcycle Girl
Sohai Ali Abro

A one of a kind film released across cinemas in Pakistan earlier this year. A biopic on the first female motorcyclist was made by Adnan Sarwar starring Sohai Ali Abro, Samina Peerzada, Ali Kazmi to name a few.

The journey of Zenith Irfan was portrayed in the film ‘Motorcycle Girl,’ who biked across Pakistan all by herself.

In August 2015, she biked 3,200 kilometres from Lahore through North Pakistan up to the Khunjerab Pass, which borders China.

In earlier interviews, Zenith stated that riding across Pakistan was a spiritual endeavour as this was a dream her father saw and hoped to ride across the world on a motorcycle. Thus, this was just one step towards that dream.

In 2013, her younger brother bought a motorcycle and Zenith started taking motorcycle lessons from him, practising in their hometown. She has taken two trips since 2015, riding into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan, completing 20,000 kilometres on her motorcycle.

She now keeps a photo blog, Zenith Irfan: 1 Girl 2 Wheels, on Facebook to document her journeys.

Just a few days before the release of the movie, GLOSS chatted with the reel life Motorcycle Girl to talk about the game-changing movie that the entire nation was looking forward to.

Tell us about your character in the movie.
I play the reel life Zenith Irfan, the first female rider who biked across the country. It is all about how her journey was picked up by the media and how she became an icon.

How different is it from the actual story?
Since it’s a biopic, we couldn’t do much with it because we did not want to change the essence of the actual event. Thus, that left us with little to no space to experiment. However, we did try to keep it as interesting as possible without fabricating too much.

How did you prepare for your character? What challenges did you face during that period?
The most important and terrifying thing was learning how to ride a motorcycle.

This is because I have always been scared of riding and I had to overcome this fear in order to prepare for the role. Even though it was challenging, I am glad I was able to do this.

I started taking my initial bike classes with the ‘Women on Wheels’ initiative by the Punjab government. I learnt the basics with them, then a month and a half before the shooting, the team and I started to actually prepare for the role.
From the morning workout routines to motorcycle classes, from eating habits to being in that headspace of being alone during the journey, I was just getting in that zone slowly.

Having said that, this has got to be the most interesting role that I have prepared for.

Do you think this movie will change the role of women in the society?
We can say that this is definitely a start. It won’t fix everything at once but will start a dialogue surrounding the issues. We live in the 21st century and women across the globe are being empowered, so why not in our own country as well?

Since more women are speaking out and want to be heard, this will help in becoming a voice for them. Furthermore, I hope more girls will start riding or following their dreams and doing what they want to do without being sorry about it.

Whats your take on the ‘khana khud garam karo’ controversy?
In my opinion, these things are very petty. We need to support each other. If we empower women so much, we need to do the same for men.

God has made a system where these two genders go hand in hand, there are certain things that men do and women don’t and vice versa but, again what we are trying to do is finish this discrimination.

Anyone should be able to cook or heat their own food, there is no big deal about it.

Any incident from the sets that you would like to share with us?
I think what I remember the most from the sets was our time at Khunjerab Pass. It is said that due to its altitude, people tend to have breathing problems and it is very cold there.

Since I hadn’t been to this side of the country, I was very excited about it. I was given certain instructions and guidelines before going there in order to sustain as we had to finish shooting our scenes there.

Half an hour after arriving at the location, three people passed out due to lack of oxygen, we had to rush them to the hospital, so experiencing all of this was very new and fascinating for me.

After pack up, all of us dozed off in the car and as we headed downhill, all of us starting waking up one by one and it all felt like a dream because it was all so crazy, everyone was acting up. It sure was an experience to remember.

Whats in the pipeline for you after Motorcycle Girl?
Nothing as yet, but what I am looking forward to is a good vacation trip. Who doesn’t love some time off from work?

Any advice to aspiring actors or girls who want to go on such trips?
In today’s world, we know that girls and women are changing their lives for the better. We are all about empowerment now.

We have so many girls doing so much already, so if there is something that you want to do, just go for it. There should be no second thoughts about it. Be it an adventurous trip or getting a job, nobody should tell you what to do anymore. You are your own boss, girls.