Islamabad, Jan 06: Renowned India-born filmmaker Mira Nair, currently touring Pakistan, has promised to make a movie that would promote friendly relations between the people of the two countries.
When asked about Indian films that were anti-Pakistan in sentiments, Nair said in an interview that she would work on a movie about India and Pakistan with a view to bringing both the countries and the people together and removing misunderstandings between them.
She said the governments of India and Pakistan should allow filmmakers to travel freely in the subcontinent. Nair said she was optimistic that relations between Pakistan and India would improve and the problems faced by the people who wished to visit each other’s country would end.
"I had no problem in coming to Pakistan. It didn’t seem to be a problem," Nair, who was visiting Pakistan at the invitation of local newspaper Daily Times, said. Besides pledging to make a movie to promote friendship between people of India and Pakistan, Nair promised to use the lyrics of noted Pakistani Leftist poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz in her films and enrol Pakistani folk singer Abida Perveen to sing.
"This is our common culture actually. I want Pakistani filmmakers to come forward. They have to tell the stories of what is going on in contemporary Pakistan. This is what the world doesn’t know. What I am seeing here is so powerful," the filmmaker said.
She said she would open an institute in East Africa on August 1, 2005 to teach screen writing and directing to young filmmakers. "I am looking for eight people from East Africa and four from Pakistan, Bangladesh Sri Lanka and India," Nair said. She said the people of South Asia needed to learn the craft of screen writing and directing. "If we don’t tell our own stories, nobody will tell them."
Bureau Report
