Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin and award wining Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar have collaborated for an upcoming documentary film ‘Azmaish’ which is about the search by two women. Kalki and Sabiha, go on an extraordinary journey across Pakistan and India to understand why people in their countries are turning to religious extremism for answers. Many films have created rift between the neighbor countries but the females are trying to maintain peace through their documentary.
Azmaish is Kalki’s first Indo-Pak film and she is all set for the promotions despite all the controversy and tension between the two countries.
In a live Facebook session, Kalki answered the questions of what could be her prospective sources of funds and also revealed more about her upcoming project which is an Indo-Pak collaboration. She clarified that the documentary looks at the two countries outside the context of conflict and rather focuses on what the common man on the street actually thinks about the relations between the two countries instead of how the relationship has been projected by the media and the political forces.
She added that “mixing arts with politics is dangerous and it’s important that art and culture remain the voice of the minority.” Talking about her trip she admits that “she was surprised to see that Pakistan is still a largely agricultural society with feudal landlords owning and running entire villages. When Sumar came to Mumbai, Kalki took her around the city in local trains and on Holi they visited some slums before travelling to Haryana.”
The Indo-Pak film will be released in Germany first as it is co-produced by a German channel and then will be released in India. Kalki finally added that if the movie would not be shown in Pakistan then the last resort for Pakistani’s would be watching it through the internet.
