There was already a quiet kind of anticipation around Bait when the first promo dropped. Not loud, not overwhelming but enough to make you pause. Part of that curiosity came from seeing Riz Ahmed attached to the project, especially in a story that seemed to centre a Pakistani family navigating life in migration, identity and culture changes. And then, almost unexpectedly, came the glimpse of Sajid Hasan, a familiar face in an unfamiliar space – which made the intrigue feel a little more personal. It made you want to know more, not just about the story, but about how it would represent us.

For Hassan, Bait is more than just another project. The opportunity itself arrived unexpectedly. Initially approached to sign a non-disclosure agreement without much context, Hasan hesitated. What followed was a Zoom call that took him by surprise: sitting on the other side was Riz Ahmed.

“I told him I was a big fan,” Hasan recalled. There was a certain understated disbelief in the way he narrated the experience, but also clarity. At this stage in his career, he said, expectations are no longer the driving force. “You take everything in strides,” he noted. What mattered more was the story itself.

For Hasan, Bait stood out because it centred a Pakistani family, not as a backdrop, but as the emotional core of the narrative. In a landscape where South Asian representation has often leaned heavily towards Indian stories, this felt significant. “Indians have shown themselves so many times,” he said. “But this was finally a representation of a Pakistani family.”