Bad idea to make film on Mumbai attacks - Article

Mumbai: Producer-director Vikram Bhatt has compared last week's terror attacks that rocked Mumbai to the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre and said that making a film on it would be a bad idea.

"It's a bad script. It's an episode of defeat. Who would want to watch it as everything ended on a sad note," Bhatt told IANS.

He said that the commandos and security forces fought till the end and rescued many, "but we should not forget that nearly 200 people have been killed, which gives it a sad look".

"We should not call it a victory. It has been controlled and contained. They (the terrorists) were ready to die, so killing them is not a victory. If the terrorists would have been killed at the CST (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) station then I would have called it a victory, but it did not happen so," said Bhatt, who has directed films like "Raaz" and "Ghulam".

Bhatt is still in shock about the whole episode and said: "I am having the saddest time of my life, thinking of those innocent people who have been killed. It's a complete massacre which will give our country a new way to look at things."

"It is like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which changed India. This incident would help India get rid of corrupt politicians," he said.

On April 13, 1919, British Indian Army soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The firing lasted about 10 minutes and claimed over a thousand lives.

Speculation of a film being planned on the terror strikes in Mumbai, which claimed at least 183 lives, has been on ever since filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and actor Riteish Deshmukh accompanied Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on his visit to the ravaged Taj Mahal Hotel Sunday.

Varma had later denied any plans of making a movie on the attacks and said that his visit to the hotel was a personal one.