'Shikara' doesn't bear hatred towards any community: Writer Abhijat Joshi

Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "Shikara" is a heart-wrenching story of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in late 1989 and early 1990, but the film projects the historic tragedy without any hatred towards any other community, insists Abhijat Joshi, one of the screenplay writers.

"Ever since I met Vidhu Vinod Chopra, I saw the dream of telling this story in his eyes. This film is the tribute to the Valley that he lost. When he started making the film he defied age. It is certainly not easy to work with 4,000 actors in re-allocation and in the cold nights of Kashmir, but Vinod has done it all because it is a very personal narrative for him. It is a very big thing for me to see how, in the last 25 years from the time he started thinking of telling the story of Kashmiri Pandits and their mass exodus, he has never uttered a single bad word about any other community or religion. He has made this film with total integrity and without bitterness," said Joshi, at a special screening of of the film he attended with Chopra, lyricist Irshad Kamil and the cast of the film.

The film introduces two new actors, Adil Khan and Sadia.

Mentioning why newcomers were preferred for the lead roles, Joshi said: "These two youngsters are the undiscovered stars that Vinod took and polished over two years!"

AR Rahman and Qutub-e-Kirpa have composed the music of the film, while the songs are by Abhay Rustam Sopori and Sandesh Shandilya.

( With inputs from IANS )