Shahzad Haider is a screenwriter and materials engineer based in Karachi, Pakistan, dedicated to crafting high-concept psychological thrillers for the global stage. Currently developing the two-part film franchise "The Proxy," Shahzad’s work is characterized by "meta-logical" storytelling—a style that bridges his rigorous background in engineering and computer science with deep metaphysical inquiry.
A Mensa member (IQ 152) with a Master’s from Queen Mary University of London, he explores the friction between belief and logic, focusing on characters who must navigate the boundaries of reality and the human soul. With a formal foundation in music theory and keyboard performance, Shahzad approaches narrative structure with a unique sense of rhythm and precision, aiming to deliver complex, intellectually stimulating content to international OTT platforms.
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Glad to have you here. Tell us more about your protagonist in The Proxy.
i don't beleive in antagonist or protagonist. I even don't beleive in conflict. I am a sufi as well, so in this I included ISHQ(devine love) as well.
LOVE AT FIRST VOICE
An Original Series · 8 Episodes · Season One
LOGLINE
In Karachi, a man finishes a scam call and moves on. In Los Angeles, a woman sits motionless because her heart just fell in love with a voice on the phone. She will break off her engagement, hire investigators, fly twelve thousand miles, and marry a man who does not love her — because love found her, and when love arrives in a heart, it does not leave. The epilogues reveal they were born at the same universal second.
THE STORY
Ali works at a call centre in Karachi that scams foreigners. He is poor. He is engaged to Maryam — he likes her but does not love her. One morning, on overtime after a long night shift, he makes a routine scam call to an office in Los Angeles. It is New Year’s Eve there. He introduces himself as Phillip. He will not remember this call.
Olivia is a businesswoman. Rich, successful, content. She is not searching for anything. Nothing is missing. She is at her office handling a work emergency when the call comes to her desk phone. The instant she hears his voice, her heart knows. She goes silent for ten seconds. She recognises the scam in thirty seconds. She does not hang up. She lets him scam her to keep the connection.
After the call, Ali goes home and sleeps. Olivia lies awake. Her heart tells her divine love (ishq) has arrived. Her mind tells her it is infatuation. She fights it for four days. Her heart wins. When divine love (ishq) arrives, it does not leave. It does not ask permission. It gives an order. She breaks up with her fiancé Stephan. He warns her: the voice might be AI, the person is a thief, you are living in fairy tales. She tells her best friend Isabella. She hires investigators. They trace the call to Karachi. She flies there. She trades the evidence for one meeting with Ali. His boss Bilal brings him to her. Ali is scared — he expects punishment. She tells him she fell in love the instant she heard his voice.
He agrees to meet her daily. He shows her his Karachi — the streets, the food, his family, his poverty. During their time together, Olivia tells Ali she fell in divine love with him. Ali recognises what she is describing — he tells her: you mean ishq. He explains the concept through Khwaja Ghulam Farid: “othay kuch nahin bachda, jithay ishq ne laa leya daira” — there is nothing left where divine love (ishq) resides. It is not a choice. It claims you. Your free will is gone. With love, you have a choice. With divine love (ishq), you don’t. Olivia recognises her own experience. From that point on, she uses the word ishq.
She asks him to marry her. He is direct: he does not love her. She is rich. Marriage means money and a way out of poverty. He will marry her for these reasons. But he will not break his engagement with Maryam. Only if Maryam agrees. Maryam initially refuses, then realises Olivia is sincere. She takes time to think, talks to Ali, and agrees to break the engagement — because Olivia really loves Ali, and Ali wants to become rich. If Maryam holds on, Ali will blame her for the rest of his life. Ali’s family accepts Olivia. For Ali it is an arranged marriage. For Olivia it is a love marriage. Both are true. They marry in a traditional ceremony in Karachi. The wedding is the end of the story.
THE EPILOGUES
Every episode ends with a split-screen epilogue — Ali in Karachi, Olivia in Los Angeles, at the same age, doing the same thing, at the same universal moment. The ages go backward: 26, 22, 18, 14, 10, 6, 3. The final epilogue: age zero. Two hospitals. Two births. The same universal second. The date is different but the moment in the universe is the same. No one in the story knows this. The audience alone carries the truth: the universe had already decided. Thirty years before the phone call, it placed them on the same heartbeat.
WHAT THIS SERIES IS SAYING
Don’t waste your life searching for a soulmate. Don’t look for divine love (ishq). If divine love (ishq) is meant for you, it will find you — uninvited, unexplained, undeniable. You cannot miss it. You cannot stop it. If the universe wants something to happen, no one can stop it.
Instead, grab the love that is in front of you. Love is real. Love is valuable. A partner through regular love is better than a soulmate through divine love (ishq) — because with love, you have a choice. You choose your partner. You build a life with intention. With divine love (ishq), you have no choice. It claims you. It gives an order. You follow. There is no freedom in it.
Olivia was not searching. She had love — Stephan, a good man, a good life, a choice she made. She was content. Divine love (ishq) found her anyway, through a scammer’s voice on a phone. She had no choice. It took her choice away. Ali is her soulmate — not because she chose him, but because the universe chose him for her.
Divine love (ishq) is real. It cannot be denied. Love is a choice. It builds a life. If you want a life — choose love. If divine love (ishq) finds you — it will not ask what you want.
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT · Confidential · Original Work · All Rights Reserved