''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 ''Geo Entertainment'' or Har Pal Geo is a Pakistani entertainment television channel owned by Geo Television Network was established in May 2002. Its test transmission started on 14 August 2002 on the PAS 10 digital satellite whereas on 1 Octob ...

. The theme of the series is karma. In 2021, serial was released on the network's sister channel

Geo Kahani Geo Kahani (Urdu: ) is an entertainment channel of Geo network, broadcasting in Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''l ...

. Its second season titled " Saaya 2" premiered on 6 May 2022, on

. The second season stars Mashal Khan,

Momina Iqbal Momina Iqbal () is a Pakistani television actress. She made her acting debut in 2018 with '' Parlour Wali Larki'' as female protagonist Maryam. She later on appeared in serials like ''Khuda Aur Muhabbat 3'', '' Ishq Mein Kaafir'', '' Ajnabi Lag ...

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 live 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 she and her niece 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 and state that she killed herself. Rashid is forced to marry 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

Maham Amir Maham Aamir (born 26 December 1990) is a Pakistani actress who appears in Urdu-language television series. She is known for her role as Sualeha (ghost) in Saaya and Noshi in Ready Steady Go. Career Aamir started her career as a host on ''Salam ...

as Sauleha *

Sohail Sameer Sohail Sameer is a Pakistani actor who appears in television series and films. He began his career as child actor on PTV. He got a lot of recognition for his role as Nazakat Ali in Hum TV's 2018 romantic comedy '' Suno Chanda''. Early life B ...

as Rashid *

Kiran Tabeir ''Kataksha'' is 2019 Pakistani psychological horror film. Directed and written by Abu Aleeha (in his directorial debut), the film stars Saleem Meraj, Kiran Tabeir, Kasim Khan, Nimra Shahid and Mubeen Gabol as a group of news crew on a mission t ...

as Saba *

Faizan Shaikh Faizan Sheikh is a Pakistani actor who appears in television series and films. He is known for appearances in numerous contrasting roles. He has played several genre roles including comical, romantic, antagonist and supporting roles. Currently, ...

as Sajid *

Mizna Waqas Mizna Waqas, also known as Mizna, is a Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a populatio ...

as Raheela *

Ghana Ali Ghana Ali Raza () is a Pakistani television, film and theater actress. She is known for her work in Pakistani dramas. Ali earned commercial success with lead role in the Geo TV drama serial ''Sangdil''. She made her film debut with the musical ...

as Maheen

Recurring

Sumbul Shahid Sumbul Shahid (1 January 1954 – 6 May 2021) was a Pakistani actress, singer, and host. She was the daughter of Ahmad Bashir (Urdu: احمد بشیر; 24 March 1923 – 25 December 2004) a writer, journalist, intellectual, and film director fr ...

as Ateeqa: Rashid, Sajid and Shela's mother * Hajra Khan as Shela: Rashid and Sajid's sister *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's second daughter *Bakhtawar Rasheed as Guriya: Rashid/Sauleha's first daughter *Anabia as Shafaq: Rashid/Sauleha"s third daughter but actually is Qayum/Raheela's daughter *Sameer as Ahsan: Shela/Waseem's son *Sania Zehra as Laraib: (Qayum/Raheela's first daughter *Hoorain as Manahil: Qayum/Raheela's second daughter *Alizay as Sidra: Qayum/Raheela's third daughter *Akbar as Akbar: Qayum/Raheela's fourth 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 In Islamic law, marriage is accomplished through the marriage contract, known as a () or more specifically, the bride's acceptance of the groom's dowry (''mahr'') and the witnessing of her acceptance. The contract has rights and obligatio ...

of two stars of the series

and

, 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

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 Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

, 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.

Sequel

In December 2021, it was revealed that Season 2 of Saaya is in production starring Wajiha Khan Durrani, Mizna Waqas, Inaya Khan, Naveed Raza, Zainab Qayyum as initial cast members of the show. Later, Momina Iqbal, Mashal Khan were revealed as female leads. Sohail Sameer, Maham Aamir and Saleem Mairaj reprise their roles from the first season. It was released on 6 May 2022 on

References

{{Reflist 2018 Pakistani television series debuts Horror drama television series Pakistani horror fiction television series