It was in the second year of college when Syed Noor and Shamim Ara saw me and within 10 minutes of each other offered me a role in their films.

Blunt, immodest and focused, Laila doesn’t see the need to mince words. Having started off in 1997 without a portfolio, today she has more than just a few films under her belt.

I wasn’t very interested in showbiz, but when two big directors made me offers, I thought about it seriously. When I decided to do it, I did it for fun, not professionally. Soon Sangeeta offered me a role, and in a short time I had three films.

Karishma and Kareena Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Shushmita Sen, Sanjay Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Rishi Kapoor and Neeto Singh, Yash Chopra, Rakesh Roshan, Mahesh and Pooja Bhatt are just some of the Bollywood giants who have been invited by their Lollywood counterparts to spend this Basant in the city.

Most of these actors already have a Pakistani visa and others were in the process of getting one, said film director and writer Asif Ali Pota. He said the proposed programme includes a night at the Lahore Fort, which will be recorded by Prime Television, UK, and a dinner in Karachi hosted by the designer BG.