BOMBAY: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has approached leading Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar to shoot a music video depicting the easing of relations between India and Pakistan, the director said Monday. The clip, featuring Indian star Matondkar and Pakistani band Fuzon, will be shot in Lahore, Islamabad and parts of India. “I was thrilled when the UNDP approached me with this idea to shoot the video in Pakistan. I have never been to that country and I am excited and looking forward to my trip,†said director Prahlad Kakkar. The shoot will run on Tuesday and Wednesday. Though Pakistan and India recently decided to open their respective airspaces from January 1, Kakkar and Matondkar will have to travel to Pakistan via Dubai. Daily TimesThis is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
For those who came in late, government backed mobs have rampaged across many Pakistan cities defacing posters of actresses, burning CDs, VCRs, televisions and cinemas.Oh yes, people may watch bootleg versions with their windows closed though.
And this is what she said (italics mine)
I have never been in a movie that creates tension between India and Pakistan. My message is of love and peace. That is why I was in the film Pinjer, whose message is on the importance of friendship between the two countries,†Urmila said.
And why is not acting in a movie that creates tension between India and Pakistan a badge of virtue? She had no need to take an apologetic line.
And more Bollywood personalities are crossing the border:
Mr Ali said the PFPD had finalised arrangements to welcome the delegation at the Wagah border crossing on December 11. He said noted Indian actress and human rights activist Shabana Aazmi, actor Syed Naseeruddin Shah, Ram Jethmalani, Raj Babbar, poet and film director Samporan Singh, popularly known as Gulzar, would attend the convention.
Looks like Bollywood has finally commenced sending cross-border infiltrators to brainwash the Pakistanis with plots, twists, song and dance and make them drop their hostility towards India. Even that sounds like a Bollywood dream.
In reality, this is the Pakistani reaction:
Pakistani film producers vowed Tuesday to stymie any bid by their Indian counterparts to have a ban on Indian films lifted, saying the raunchy Indian movies were a threat to Pakistani morality.
“We are totally against allowing Indian movies to run in Pakistani theatres,” Mian Amjad Farzand, chairman of the Pakistan Film Producers Association, told AFP.
“There is a big difference between their culture and ours. Indian movies shown on satellite and cable television and hired out by video shops have already damaged the moral fabric of our society.”
Farzand said the Pakistani producers’ stance was based not on fear of Indian movies killing the Pakistani industry, but on morality.
“This is not a question of business, it’s a question of protecting our culture,” he said.
Politics also played a role, he conceded. “In any case we are against showing of Indian movies in Pakistani cinemas until the Kashmir dispute is resolved,” Farzand said. Sify News
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