Kashmir has been a subject of great interest for Bollywood filmmakers. While majority of them focus on the terrorism and the horrendous state that the place is in, director Vishal Bhardwaj wanted to focus on the lives of people affected by the chaos in the controversial state.
Ahead of the release of his film 'Haider', which is an adaption of Shakespeare's famous work 'Hamlet', has been set in Kashmir for its Indian adaption, Vishal reveals what made him make the film.
"Actually, it's important to see it in its reality. What I have attempted to do is observe the life of a common family in Srinagar. And my film is set in a period, in 1995, when militancy was it at its peak. What a middle class family in Kashmir goes through in a time of conflict. How a family that doesn't belong to either side, that wants to live a normal life, how that family gets sucked into all this is my story. Politics is a backdrop, a very strong backdrop, but finally I am exploring the story of a family. Mujhe jo lagta hai, ki jo abhi tak hamari filmein mostly Kashmir pe bani hain, humnein almost always baahar se jaa kar dekha hai. We haven't seen it from the other side. What is the viewpoint of the people who have lived over there, what they have gone through - that has not been taken up. Sometimes we see it from the view of an intelligence officer, sometimes from the viewpoint of a journalist, sometimes it could be the story of a South Indian lady who is attempting to find her husband. That is the way the filmmaker likes to access what he thinks he can actually be closest to. I did not want to do that. Which is why I hadn't taken this up earlier, even though I'd wanted to make a movie on Kashmir for many years," he said.
Amidst the controversies which claim that he might have crossed line of sentiments of the citizens of the state and the people of the country, Vishal assures that he knows where to draw the line.
"I'm also an Indian, I'm also a patriot, I also love my nation. So I won't do anything which is anti-national. But what is anti-human, I will definitely comment on it. That is what I have done in the film as well. I am definitely not anti-national, I am only against what is anti-human. I have had not a single objection raised to any scene, any dialogue in my film being cleared," he stated proudly.
The film starring Shahid Kapoor, Kay Kay Menon, Tabu and Shraddha Kapoor in lead roles is all set to release on October 2 with 'Bang Bang' which also releases on the same day.