From DVF to Star Wars, Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy charts her Hollywood path 

From DVF to Star Wars, Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy charts her Hollywood path 
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attends the opening night premiere of "Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge" during the 2024 Tribeca Festival at BMCC Theater on June 05, 2024 in New York City.
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Updated 26 June 2024
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From DVF to Star Wars, Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy charts her Hollywood path 

From DVF to Star Wars, Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy charts her Hollywood path 
  • Obaid-Chinoy, winner of two Oscars, has been roped in to direct a Star Wars film
  • Her documentaries have put spotlight on social issues, notably women’s rights

Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s oeuvre defies simple categorization.
She’s made documentaries about acid attack victims and child refugees. She’s focused her lens on the extraordinary life of designer Diane von Furstenberg. She’s spearheaded animated films for and about Pakistani children. She’s directed episodes of “Ms. Marvel” and is developing a Star Wars film. And she’s won two Oscars along the way.

It’s not a conventional resume or trajectory — nothing that anyone would teach or even think to advise in a film school or a masterclass about making it in Hollywood. But for Obaid-Chinoy , it’s working. And it’s made her one of the most interesting storytellers in the business.

“I’ve been able to follow my own yellow brick road to Hollywood,” Obaid-Chinoy said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Having Academy Awards has helped that, but most importantly so many young filmmakers around the world write to me and tell me how my unconventional choices ... make them believe that that yellow brick road can be walked on by many people.”
Her newest film is “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge,” which is streaming on Hulu. With a co-directing credit shared with Trish Dalton, it’s an intimate portrait of the fashion tycoon, who is raw and honest about everything: death, dalliances, ambitions, love, failures and everything in between.
“I hope it’s inspiring to a lot of girls and women to know that they can be the women they want to be,” von Furstenberg said.
They met 12 years ago on stage at Carnegie Hall where von Furstenberg was presenting Obaid-Chinoy with a Glamour Woman of the Year Award and have kept in touch since. When von Furstenberg decided she was ready to tell her own story, she wanted Obaid-Chinoy to do it and gave her full access to herself, her family and her archives.
“I’ve always made films about women who are on the front lines, who are faced with extraordinary circumstances and who rise to that occasion,” she said. “Diane is very much in line with that.”
It’s a busy time for the filmmaker, who is also in early development on Akiva Goldsman’s adaptation of the Marcus Sakey novel “Brilliance” and working with Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Knight on a “Star Wars” film about Daisy Ridley’s Rey at a jedi academy, both of which she’ll direct.
Obaid-Chinoy didn’t start out with filmmaking aspirations, however. Her entry to storytelling was as a teen journalist in Pakistan. The eldest of six, five of whom were girls, she was a naturally inquisitive young person who wanted to know about the world around her. She would pepper her mother with questions: Why did she get to go to school while other kids were begging on the street? Why was there inequality? Why were women forced to live a certain kind of life?
When she was around 14, her mother suggested she start putting these questions in writing. So, she did. Obaid-Chinoy wrote a letter to the local English language newspaper in Pakistan — the first of many letters that would open doors to new opportunities and career advancements. By 17, she was doing investigative reporting for the paper.
It wasn’t until October 2001, as she was nearing her graduation at Smith College, that she realized she wanted to do more visual storytelling. Her first idea was to go to Afghanistan and focus on the ordinary people living there. She sent her proposal out to about 80 organizations and finally got a response, from New York Times Television. With $7,500 from them and $7,500 from her school, she made “Terror’s Children,” which was broadcast on television and won several awards: Suddenly she was a documentary filmmaker to watch.
In 2012, at 33, she made Oscars history as the first Pakistani Academy Award winner for her documentary short “Saving Face,” an eye-opening film about women disfigured by acid attacks and the plastic surgeon trying to help them.
One of its fans was Angelina Jolie, who wrote in Time Magazine that Obaid-Chinoy, one of their 100 most influential people of 2012, was helping to shape the dialogue on Pakistan and inspire change in legislation.
“Giving voice to those who cannot be heard,” Jolie wrote, “she celebrates the strength and resilience of those fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds — and winning.”
A few years later, her film “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” about a teen who survives an “honor killing” attempt by her father and uncle, helped inform the repeal of a forgiveness loophole for perpetrators. It also won the Oscar.
After that, she felt an urge to create something more visual and set up an animation studio in Pakistan.
“I began to work more with actors and narrative work,” she said. “And out of this grew a need to do something that would take my experiences being embedded around the world as a filmmaker and create something that would give life to characters that would be loved around the world.”
So, she wrote another letter, this time to Marvel Studios, raising her hand to help with the Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel.” She directed episodes around the superhero’s trip to modern-day Pakistan and 1947 India.
This new phase of her career has put her in a bigger spotlight, with higher profile opportunities, but it also comes with its downsides — just ask anyone involved in “Acolyte” about toxic fandoms. But she’s unbothered by the noise: She learned long ago from her mother to drown out the voices that aren’t helpful.
The chasm between serious-minded documentaries and fantasies about jedi knights might seem vast from the outside, but for Obaid-Chinoy it’s not so.
“My protagonists ... go on these hero’s journey and that are faced with adversities and that sort of, you know, rise up out of the ashes of that adversity. And in many of my films, they change the trajectory of a country, the trajectory of the community,” she said. “At the heart of it, that is Star Wars. And I’ve been telling that story for the last 20 years.”


Pakistan’s currency exchange union offers $1 billion to government in case of war

Pakistan’s currency exchange union offers $1 billion to government in case of war
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Pakistan’s currency exchange union offers $1 billion to government in case of war

Pakistan’s currency exchange union offers $1 billion to government in case of war
  • Currency markets are not in a state of panic, ECAP Chairman Malik Muhammad Bostan says
  • Record-breaking 6,482-point plunge stunned the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday

KARACHI: The Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) has offered $1 billion per month to the government in case of war or an emergency, the organization said on Thursday, as fears have grown that the worst confrontation in two decades of conflict between India and Pakistan could escalate.

India on Wednesday struck what it said was “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir and Pakistan said it retaliated by shooting down five Indian aircraft. The Indian strikes killed 31 people and injured 57, Pakistan’s army said. 

On Thursday, Pakistan’s military said it shot down 29 drones from India at multiple locations, including the two largest cities of Karachi and Lahore and the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home to the army’s headquarters. 

The Indian defense ministry said Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India from Wednesday night into Thursday morning and they were “neutralized” by Indian air defense systems. In response, Indian forces targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan on Thursday, the ministry said.

“We are capable of providing the government with $1 billion (Rs280 billion) dollars per month in case of war or emergency,” ECAP Chairman Malik Muhammad Bostan said. “There is no panic in the currency markets.”

Exchange companies provide $25 million (Rs7 billion) daily to the interbank market, the statement said, adding that they had managed to sell $10 million (Rs2.8 billion) in the interbank market despite fresh tensions between Pakistan and India.

The statement quoted Bostan as saying the inflow of dollars would increase after flight operations returned to normal. 

The ECAP offer came amid a record-breaking 6,482-point plunge at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), marking the largest single-day decline in the index’s history as investors feared escalation in the standoff between India and Pakistan.

The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947. The countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, and clashed many times.

The countries, which both claim Kashmir in full and rule over parts of it separately, acquired nuclear weapons in the 1990s.


Islamabad denies as India says military stations attacked by drones and missiles

Islamabad denies as India says military stations attacked by drones and missiles
Updated 08 May 2025
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Islamabad denies as India says military stations attacked by drones and missiles

Islamabad denies as India says military stations attacked by drones and missiles
  • Sirens sounded and red flashes and projectiles erupted in the night sky above Jammu for about 2-1/2 hours
  • Islamabad says accusations “entirely unfounded, politically motivated, part of reckless propaganda campaign“

JAMMU/ ISLAMABAD: Blasts rang out across the Indian city of Jammu late on Thursday during what the government said was a Pakistani drone and missile attack on military stations around the Kashmir region on the second day of clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Sirens sounded and red flashes and projectiles erupted in the night sky above Jammu for about 2-1/2 hours, a Reuters journalist said, in what appeared to be an escalation in the countries’ worst confrontation in more than two decades.
Two days of fighting have killed nearly four dozen people.
“Military stations at Jammu, Pathankot & Udhampur were targeted by Pakistani-origin drones and missiles along the international border in J&K today,” India’s Ministry of Defense said on X, citing places in and near the federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The threats were swiftly neutralized .... No casualties or material losses were reported.”
Indian TV channels also showed flares and flashes in the sky above Jaisalmer city in Rajasthan state, which shares a border with the southern Pakistani province of Sindh.
In a statement, Islamabad denied attacking Pathankot in India’s Punjab state, Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley and Jaisalmer and said the accusations were “entirely unfounded, politically motivated, and part of a reckless propaganda campaign aimed at maligning Pakistan.”
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country would respond to any escalation “with full resolve and determination to safeguard Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Electricity in Jammu was slowly being restored after a blackout during the attack, a Reuters journalist said.
Eight missiles, fired from Pakistan at the Jammu region towns of Satwari, Samba, Ranbir Singh Pura and Arnia, were intercepted by air defense units, added an Indian military source who asked not to be named.
They were part of a wider attack, the source added.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif earlier said further retaliation was “increasingly certain” after both countries accused each other of launching drone attacks.
World powers from the US to Russia and China have called for calm in one of the world’s most dangerous and populated nuclear flashpoint regions. The US Consulate General in Pakistan’s Lahore ordered staff to shelter in place.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for de-escalation in separate calls with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday, the State Department said.
The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947. The countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, and clashed many times.
The neighbors, which both claim Kashmir in full and rule over parts of it, separately acquired nuclear weapons in the 1990s.

DRONES, MISSILES, AIR DEFENCES

In the latest confrontations, India said it hit nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan on Wednesday in retaliation for what it says was a deadly Islamabad-backed attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22.
Pakistan says it was not involved and denied that any of the sites hit by India were militant bases. It said it shot down five Indian aircraft on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s military said earlier on Thursday it shot down 29 drones from India at multiple locations including the two largest cities of Karachi and Lahore and the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home to the army’s headquarters.
The Indian defense ministry said Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India from Wednesday night into Thursday morning and they were “neutralized” by Indian air defense systems.
In response, Indian forces targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan on Thursday, the ministry said.
Before trading ended, both countries saw their stocks, bonds and currencies decline, and Pakistan’s benchmark share index closed down 5.9 percent.
Local media reported panic buying in some cities in the Indian state of Punjab, which shares a border with Pakistan, as people hoarded essentials.


US secretary of state Rubio urges Islamabad and New Delhi to step back

US secretary of state Rubio urges Islamabad and New Delhi to step back
Updated 08 May 2025
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US secretary of state Rubio urges Islamabad and New Delhi to step back

US secretary of state Rubio urges Islamabad and New Delhi to step back
  • Marco Rubio holds separate phone calls with Pakistani PM and Indian external affairs minister 
  • Urges Pakistan and India to improve communications, engage in “direct dialogue” to de-escalate 

ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday held separate telephone calls with Pakistan’s premier and the external affairs minister of India and urged the two nations to engage in “direct dialogue” to de-escalate their ongoing conflict, the state department said. 

India hit Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, called Azad Kashmir, with missiles on Wednesday and Pakistan said it shot down five Indian aircraft in retaliation in their worst clash in over two decades. Pakistan said 31 civilians were killed in the Indian strikes while New Delhi says it targeted “terror camps.”

On Thursday, Pakistan said it had shot down 29 drones launched by India while New Delhi said it had “neutralized” Islamabad’s attempts to target military targets with drones and missiles.

“He expressed US support for direct dialogue between India and Pakistan and encouraged continued efforts to improve communications,” the state department said in two separate statements after Rubio spoke to Pakistani Premier Shehbaz Sharif and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. 

“The Secretary emphasized the need for immediate de-escalation.”

India is an important US partner for Washington, which aims to counter China’s rising influence, while Pakistan remains an ally, despite its diminished importance after the US withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

Both India and Pakistan claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full, with each controlling only part and having fought wars in the past over the region.

The latest standoff was triggered by an April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan, which has denied the claims and called for a neutral investigation.


Pakistan’s Chinese-made jet brought down two Indian fighter aircraft — US officials 

Pakistan’s Chinese-made jet brought down two Indian fighter aircraft — US officials 
Updated 08 May 2025
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Pakistan’s Chinese-made jet brought down two Indian fighter aircraft — US officials 

Pakistan’s Chinese-made jet brought down two Indian fighter aircraft — US officials 
  • Performance of leading Chinese fighter jet against Western rival is being closely watched in Washington 
  • Episode may offer insights into how Beijing might fare in any showdown over Taiwan or the wider Indo-Pacific

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: A top Chinese-made Pakistani fighter plane shot down at least two Indian military aircraft on Wednesday, two US officials told Reuters, marking a major milestone for Beijing’s advanced fighter jet.
The performance of a leading Chinese fighter jet against a Western rival is being closely watched in Washington for insights into how Beijing might fare in any showdown over Taiwan or the wider Indo-Pacific.
One US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was high confidence that Pakistan had used the Chinese-made J-10 aircraft to launch air-to-air missiles against Indian fighter jets — bringing down at least two.
Another official said at least one Indian jet that was shot down was a French-made Rafale fighter aircraft.
Both officials said Pakistan’s F-16 aircraft, made by Lockheed Martin, were not used in the shootdown.
Delhi has not acknowledged the loss of any of its planes and instead said it carried out successful strikes against what it said was “terrorist” infrastructure inside Pakistan.
World powers from the US to Russia and China have called for calm in one of the world’s most dangerous, and most populated, nuclear flashpoint regions.
In France, Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation and the MBDA consortium, which makes the Meteor air-to-air missile, could not immediately be reached for comment on a public holiday.
While Reuters reported on Wednesday that three Indian planes went down, citing local government officials in India, this marks the first Western confirmation that Pakistan’s Chinese-made jets were used in the shootdowns.
Pakistan’s Defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, told Reuters on Thursday that the J-10 was used to shoot down three French-made Rafale planes, which were newly acquired by India. 
Pakistan says it downed five Indian planes in air-to-air combat. 


Indian villagers near Pakistan border call for ceasefire as shelling kills at least 13

Indian villagers near Pakistan border call for ceasefire as shelling kills at least 13
Updated 08 May 2025
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Indian villagers near Pakistan border call for ceasefire as shelling kills at least 13

Indian villagers near Pakistan border call for ceasefire as shelling kills at least 13
  • The shelling damaged several religious sites, including a temple, a Sikh shrine and a mosque
  • Statement released by India said dead include three women, five children killed in “Pakistani firing”

Poonch, Indian-administered Kashmir: Indian villagers called for a ceasefire on Thursday after at least 13 civilians were killed by what authorities said was Pakistani shelling in Poonch, along the India-Pakistan border, in Jammu and Kashmir.

The shelling damaged several religious sites, including a temple, a Sikh shrine, and a mosque.

“We appeal to the government that there should be a ceasefire as soon as possible. There should be peace and harmony,” said a villager Malkeet Singh.

A statement released by the Indian government on Thursday said 16 lives, including three women and five children, were lost “due to Pakistani firing.”

Pakistan said at least 31 of its civilians were killed and about 50 wounded in Wednesday’s strikes and in cross-border shelling across the frontier in Kashmir.

The nuclear-armed neighbors’ tit-for-tat measures began after gunmen opened fire in the Baisaran Valley, a popular tourist attraction in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam area, on the afternoon of April 22, killing 26 people and wounding several others before fleeing into the surrounding pine forests.

Although Pakistan’s federal government has pledged to respond to India’s strikes, Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told The New York Times on Wednesday Pakistan was ready to de-escalate.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said New Delhi did not intend to escalate the situation. 

“However, if there are military attacks on us, there should be no doubt that it will be met with a very, very firm response,” he said at India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting.

“Our livestock and belongings are all gone. Nothing is left. This shelling must stop, and there should be peace. For God’s sake, give us peace. We want peace for everyone,” said a resident of Uri on the Indian side of the border.