Bilal Lashari’s blockbuster won the Special Jury Award and Best Art Direction honour at the Harbin festival
Life And Style DeskAugust 13, 20262 min readPHOTO: bilal_lashari/Instagram
Filmmaker Bilal Lashari announced that his blockbuster The Legend of Maula Jatt won two honours at the 7th Jackie Chan International Action Film Week in Harbin, China, on August 11.
Lashari shared the news on Instagram, describing the moment as particularly meaningful because he grew up watching Jackie Chan’s films. “Two awards, in the pouring rain, on a stage with Jackie Chan’s name on it. I still can’t quite believe this one,” he wrote.
The Legend of Maula Jatt received the Special Jury Award and the Best Art Direction award at the closing ceremony of the festival, one of Asia’s major celebrations of action cinema.
Reflecting on the experience, Lashari described the atmosphere at the open-air ceremony in Harbin, where rain fell throughout much of the evening.
“Thousands in the crowd, and rain coming down through all of it. It had been on and off all evening,” he wrote. “As a director, you dream of building moments like that on set. This one just happened.”
Lashari also spoke about the significance of meeting Jackie Chan, whose films inspired his love for action cinema.
“I grew up on Jackie Chan films. For a lot of us, that’s how we fell in love with action in the first place. So to be on a stage with his name on it, representing Pakistan, and then to shake his hand and have him congratulate us in person, I never pictured any of this when we started,” he said.
The filmmaker also reflected on the universal appeal of action films. “There’s really nothing that pulls people from every corner of the world together like a good action film. No subtitles needed — you just feel it,” he said.
Lashari dedicated the Best Art Direction award to production designers Namsa Abbasi and Hamza Bajwa, praising their contribution to creating the film’s visual world.
“What these two built wasn’t just sets and design, it was an entire world, and every scene of the film breathes because of them,” he wrote, adding that he wished they had been present to accept the honour themselves.
He also acknowledged producer Ammara Hikmat, who was unable to attend the ceremony. “And Ammara Hikmat, who couldn’t be with us in Harbin. We felt your absence up there,” he said.
Lashari concluded by thanking the entire Maula Jatt team and audiences in Pakistan for their support. “To our entire team, thank you. Every bit of this is yours. And to Pakistan, this one’s for you,” he wrote.
The awards mark another international milestone for The Legend of Maula Jatt, which has emerged as one of the most widely recognised Pakistani films on the global stage.
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