Iltija

Iltija (transl. Imploration) is a Pakistani television physiological drama series produced by Sana Shahnawaz and Samina Humayun Saeed under banner Next Level Entertainment. It is written by Saji Gul and directed by Mazhar Moin. Iltija focuses on the struggle of families who bring up children with abnormalities such as Down Syndrome and Quadriplegia. It features a leading cast of Affan Waheed, Tooba Siddiqui, Rubina Ashraf, Imran Ashraf and child star Caitlyn Espinherio who is actually has Down Syndrome.^[2]

Iltija
Written by	Saji Gul
Directed by	Mazhar Moin
Starring	Tooba Siddiqui Affan Waheed Caitlyn Espinherio Rubina Ashraf Imran Ashraf
Country of origin	Pakistan
Original language	Urdu
No. of episodes	29
Production
Producers	Sana Shahnawaz[1] Samina Humayun Saeed
Production company	Next Level Entertainment
Original release
Network	ARY Digital
Release	8 April (2017-04-08) – 4 November 2017 (2017-11-04)

Plot

The story revolves around Hina and Sameer who love each other and marry. After their marriage, the test of their relationship starts when Hina births a girl with Down Syndrome. Due to the birth of a child who is not as normal as others, Sameer's mother does not like Hina and due to her interference she has to leave Sameer's house. Hina than starts living in her mother's house where she brings up her daughter Khushi, alone.

Cast

• Tooba Siddiqui as Hina
• Affan Waheed as Sameer
• Caitlyn Espinherio as Khushi
• Rubina Ashraf as Sameer's mother
• Laila Wasti as Adeela
• Ali Tahir as Saqib
• Yashma Gill as Tayyaba
• Yasir Shah as Razi
• Imran Ashraf^[3] as Hadi
• Seemi Pasha as Hina's mother
• Mariam Mirza as doctor (special appearance)
• Akbar Subhani (special appearance)

Production

In October 2016, it reported that Tooba Siddiqui will make her television comeback with Saji Gul's script about Down's Syndrome. She shared to DAWN Images that "My character's a woman who has a child suffering from Down's sundrome. Different events in her life have strained her relationship with her family and friends."^[4][5] Director Mazhar Moin said in an interview that many of the actors rejected the serial due to not being a mainstream media project.^[6]

Reception

Along with a few television series of the series, DAWN Images said it as a serial of the year with a different story from the others.^[7]

The series had mostly the ratings of 4–6TRPs.^{[8][9][10][11]}