Shikara: Vidhu Vinod Chopra's film on ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri pandits releases
Mumbai/IBNS: Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra's film Shikara, which is based on the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri pandits from the valley back in 1989-1990, released on Friday.
On a cold, dark night of Jan 19, 1990, the Pandits including the Sikhs and Hindus were forced out of Kashmir.
Not featuring any big Bollywood stars, Chopra cast Aadil Khan and Sadia in the lead characters who were shown in the trailer being forced to leave the land of Kashmir.
Speaking about casting, Chopra had said, "I wanted to have full new people on board because if I had cast any Hindi film actor then Shikara would have been fake. Then the film would have become Bollywood (he means typical Bollywood film).
I felt the film would not have seemed true if any of the popular Bollywood actors had worked. So I wanted real people (on board) and most actors in the film are from Jammu and Kashmir actually."
Speaking about the film, the director had said, "..it is a film which is my own story. This is something very special to me. I spent a lot of time in love and affection."
Shikara has been produced by Vinod Chopra Films and Fox Star Studios.
Author Rahul Pandita is one who had well narrated the Kashmir exodus story in his book Our Moon Has Blood Clots detailing about the dark days of Kashmir.
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