Television, on the other hand, once offered tales of romance and domestic squabbles — love stories, jealousies, and the eternal saga of mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law. But now, even TV dramas seem to be borrowing heavily from those old Punjabi revenge plots.
Among these is ARY Digital’s mega-production, “Main Manto Nahin Hoon,” directed by Nadeem Baig and penned by the ever-controversial Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar. Qamar weaves his narrative around two feuding families — a tale of love that ignites a generational war soaked in tragedy and vengeance.
Unlike the old Punjabi films set in rustic backdrops, this drama brings the feud into the heart of urban Lahore — where power, pride, and prestige take center stage.
Lahore’s history is rife with tales of blood feuds, but few rivalries captured public fascination quite like the clashes between the Taifi Butt group and the Tipu Trukhanwala group — two influential Kashmiri-origin families with roots in the city’s bustling marketplaces.
Taifi Butt’s elder brother, Khawaja
Azhar Gulshan, was a leading figure in Lahore’s trade unions,
while Khawaja Tarif Gulshan,
better known as Taifi Butt,
reigned over the Akbari Mandi as chairman for more than twenty-five years.
Their cousin, Gogi Butt,
too, held sway in another market, tracing his lineage back to Lahore’s iconic Gawalmandi area.
Their rivals, the Trukhanwala clan
of Shah Alami, hailed
from a family of wrestlers with ancestral links to the legendary Gama Pehlwan.
The feud between these families wasn’t born overnight — it grew from local rivalries, wounded pride, and the politics of dominance. The Trukhanwala patriarch Umr Din Butt, known as Nathu Pehlwan, was the first to fall victim to violence. His son, Amir Din (Billa Pehlwan), was later gunned down — and whispers pointed fingers toward Taifi Butt.
Billa Pehlwan’s son, Arif Amir
(Tipu Trukhanwala), met a tragic end in a brazen attack at
Lahore Airport. His cousin Chand
Pehlwan and later Tipu’s own son Ameer Balaj were also murdered in
cold blood — with the Taifi and Gogi Butt names resurfacing each time. Even
within the Butt family, death lingered — Gogi Butt’s brother-in-law Ijaz Butt and his nephew Nabeel Wain both lost their lives
under mysterious circumstances.
The chain of revenge culminated when police brought Taifi Butt back from Dubai
— only for him to be killed in an alleged “encounter.”
It seems Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar drew inspiration from these very bloodstained tales of Lahore’s elite rivalries — though he infused them with cinematic charm, grandeur, and that unmistakable touch of his poetic dialogues.
In Main Manto Nahin Hoon, Asif Raza Mir portrays Siraj
Amritsari, while Babar Ali takes on the role of Bani
Amin, the two powerful patriarchs locked in an unending feud.
Interestingly, Asif Raza Mir — son of veteran filmmaker Raza Mir
— belongs to a Kashmiri family from Daska, the same region
where Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar himself hails from.
Babar Ali and Usman Peerzada, both Punjabi icons, trace their
roots to Gujrat, while Humayun Saeed, another
key figure in the production, comes from a Punjabi family now settled in
Karachi.
The star-studded cast includes Saba Hameed as Khadija (Bani Amin’s wife), Saba Faisal as Naseeba, and Saima Noor as Surayya. Sajal Aly plays Mahmal, the daughter of Siraj Amritsari — and in real life, she was once married to Asif Raza Mir’s son, Ahad Raza Mir. Opposite her is Azaan Sami Khan as Farhad, the son of Bani Amin — son of singer Adnan Sami Khan and actress Zeba Bakhtiar.
The drama unfolds across a web of revenge, loyalty, and forbidden love — where every gunshot echoes the city’s real stories of power and loss.
