Hajra Yamin and Ali Abbas are set to star in Mere Apne next. The drama serial will highlight the practice of watta satta in Pakistan.
Since arranged marriages were agreements of monetary benefit between two families, the practice of watta satta emerged to even out the scales. A daughter is given in exchange for a daughter. That way aside from the ven dowry, both families can use the other’s daughter as leverage if things go awry.
Hajra Yamin shared the news in an Instagram post. The Jalan actress told Images that the drama serial will highlight the practice of watta satta.
“Basically it is a story revolving around two households but it’s one big family. In the family, the characters played by Ali and myself, we like each other. The father, because he wants to make his family financially secure, insists that we marry through ‘watta satta’ [bride exchance].”
The Ehd-e-Wafa actress shared that the drama serial has quite a large cast. The Mere Apne cast includes Waseem Abbas, Zoya Nasir, Arez Ahmed, Zainab Shabbir, Usama Khan.
“The drama is an ensemble cast, … It has a big cast, and so it is not just Ali Abbas and myself, there are also prominent actors.”
Based on the teaser we see that Hajra Yamin and Ali Abbas’ characters are wed. Meanwhile, Usama Khan and Zainab Shabbir’s characters are also married. Zainab plays Ali Abbas’ sister, while Hajra plays Usama Khan’s sister.
It will be interesting to see how the family dynamics and marriage dynamics are portrayed in this drama serial. Hajra hopes audiences will relate to the content.
“It’s more of a household story and hopefully there will be things about the story that the audience can resonate with.”
iDream Entertainment produced the drama while Mohsin Mirza and Tahseen Khan are directing the project. Mere Apne will be broadcast on ARY Digital.
Hajra Yamin was last seen in soap opera Tera Ghum Aur Hum. She also played the antagonist in another soap opera, Bay Adab.
