'Lamha' will depict Kashmir's pain, says director Dholakia

Srinagar, Nov 5 (IANS) Bollywood filmmaker Rahul Dholakia, Wednesday said that his forthcoming movie 'Lamha' would depict the pain and suffering of Kashmir even though it was essentially a love story.

'I will be hated outside after the release of 'Lamha'. It will depict Kashmir's pain and suffering as I have seen during the two years of research for my film," Dholakia told reporters here.

He said that his movie, which stars Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu and Anupam Kher, would be a 'pro-Kashmir film'. The director added that he fully understood the humiliation and the pain the locals suffered when non-resident troopers asked them for identity proof.

"I have met a senior separatist leader and many people here and I have assured them that my film will portray Kashmir in its true perspective.

"I have been to a village called Dardpora where hundreds of widows still wait with photographs of their husbands and sons to return home. All that will be there in my film," Dholakia said.

The shooting of Dholakia's film had run into rough weather here. Kashmiri fruit traders last week intervened to stop the shooting at the fruit market as they feared the movie might portray them in bad light.

On Monday, students of a college in south Kashmir's Anantnag district took exception to some of the portions being shot inside the campus premises and the principal then asked the film crew to withdraw.

On Wednesday too, the film's shoot was interrupted by a few people while they were filming in uptown Maharaja Bazaar area.

Dholakia has earlier made the critically acclaimed film 'Parzania' about a boy who went missing in the 2002 Gujarat communal violence.