MARTYR began with a question that has stayed with us for years: How much injustice can a society learn to live with before someone decides the cost of silence is too high?

Growing up in South Asia, we witnessed a world of contradictions. Faith could bring people together and tear them apart. Children could be ignored in plain sight. Progress could exist beside poverty, persecution and exploitation. These contradictions became the foundation of Khudadad.

Through Eliya's journey from revenge to revolution, we wanted to explore what happens when one man's personal loss forces him to confront something much larger than himself. MARTYR does not romanticize revolution or sacrifice. Change has a cost, and there is no guarantee that those who fight for it will live to see a better world.

Visually, we wanted to imagine a future that grew out of South Asia rather than replacing it. Ancient streets, faith, crowded neighborhoods and familiar architecture exist alongside surveillance, machines and advanced technology.

The world has changed. Human nature hasn't.

After witnessing his parents burned by a mob as a child, Elia disappears from the city of Khudadad.
Twenty years later he returns to a place that claims to have restored order, yet beneath its shining facade the same cruelty survives.
As children from the city’s poorest streets begin to vanish, Elia starts to uncover a system built on fear and silence and prepares to challenge the forces that rule the city.

Junaid Aslam and Qasim Mehdi are childhood friends and the co-founders of ArcticBox Studio. Growing up together, they bonded over films, fiction, and a shared love of the worlds and characters that stayed with them long after the story ended.

As they began creating stories of their own, they found themselves drawn to the contradictions around them, and to stories that confront social injustice, inequality, faith, power, and the people too often overlooked by society.

Junaid brings a director's eye for visual storytelling, world-building, and cinematic atmosphere, while Qasim's passion for writing drives the characters and ideas at the heart of their work. Together, they founded ArcticBox Studio to tell bold, original stories that entertain while having something meaningful to say.

MARTYR is the culmination of that shared ambition, a world and story they have been building together for years.

ELIA

A witness to injustice from a young age, Elia learned that in Khudadad, power speaks louder than truth.
Years of loss and exile forged him into something the city no longer understands.

He returns not as a savior
but as a reckoning.

THE FACES OF KHUDADAD

FATIMA

Little is known about Fatima’s past, but her influence reaches far beyond the shadows she inhabits.
A teacher, a strategist, and a believer in quiet strength, she guides those who have been cast aside by the world.

To Elia, she is the mentor who transforms grief into purpose.

SULTANA

Sergeant Sultana is a force shaped by war, discipline, and survival.
Years in special forces and conflict zones have carved away illusions about justice or innocence.
She does not ask permission.
She does not apologize.
When Sergeant Sultana enters a room, the air shifts
because everyone knows she commands it.

SHEELA

Sheela rules the shadows of Khudadad with charm, audacity, and a mind sharper than any blade.
What began as survival in the city’s underbelly became something far more powerful, a network built on loyalty, fear, and opportunity.
To some she is a criminal.
To others, a protector.
But in Khudadad’s streets, everyone knows one truth:
there is only one queen and her name is Sheela.

QURESHI

To the people of Khudadad, Qureshi is the man who built order from chaos.
Hospitals, roads, schools a city that appears to stand strong But power in Khudadad is never clean.
Behind the speeches and careful diplomacy lies a man who believes stability demands sacrifice. Lines must be crossed. Shadows must be managed.Qureshi does not believe himself cruel.
Only necessary.

AKBAR

A cleric by training and a fighter by necessity, Akbar refuses to look away from the suffering in Khudadad’s streets. In a city where children disappear and hope fades quickly, he builds a small refuge through discipline and strength, teaching children how to stand before the world breaks them. For Akbar, faith is not only prayer, it is the courage to protect those the city has forgotten.

BABA

A quiet, principled man who chose love over society’s expectations.
He tried to build a small world of dignity and kindness for his family.

ELIA

A boy, his dog, and a bond untouched by the harshness of the world.
In the streets of Khudadad, Elia and Rambo are rarely seen apart.

MAMA

A woman of quiet faith and compassion, she built a home filled with warmth in the heart of Khudadad

MOLVI ANS

A preacher of unwavering conviction, Molvi Ans speaks with the certainty of a man who believes faith must rule the world around him.

COMMANDO

Elite operatives of Khudadad’s National Security Forces. When the red caps arrive, the streets fall silent.

BHAI

One of Khudadad’s countless street enforcers loud, reckless, and always ready for violence.

BARAN

A towering giant bound by fierce loyalty. In the shadows of Khudadad, Baran is both weapon and shield for those he serves.

THE CHILDREN OF KHUDADAD

Among the forgotten children of Khudadad stands Sheela, a small girl clutching a worn teddy bear one of many kids surviving in the shadows of the city