Our cross-border production is ambitious given the restrictive visa regime and tensions between India and Pakistan but we are ready to take on this daunting task
By Imran Zahid

Imran Zahid

We have been back in Delhi for some weeks now but it feels like yesterday that we visited Pakistan, strolling along the Lahore streets – I and Danish Iqbal, my friend and director of our forthcoming theatrical production ‘Milne Do’.

‘Milne Do’ is an intense love story between two culturally crossed individuals during times of hatred, like Shakespeare’s immortal ‘Romeo and Juliet’. An attempt to find common ground between India and Pakistan, it will be a collaborative cross-border project produced by Mahesh Bhatt and Sandip Kapoor (Promodome films) in collaboration with Azad Theatre, Lahore.

In India, we see Pakistan and its popular culture through the world of celluloid, an industry close to the hearts of our countrymen, or through television news, usually negative. Even personally, my imagination has run wild when it came to Pakistan. It was only in 2011 that I first got a chance to understand Pakistan.

It was only when I joined the campaign to free the Pakistani prisoner Dr Khalil Chishty, unjustly convicted of murder in India that I was introduced to the real Pakistan. I interacted with Pakistanis as I tried to create public awareness about the case and contacted friends in the Indian media to take up the story. With people from both countries working together, we had an unprecedented success. Dr Chishty was acquitted in December 2012.

Street food in Lahore: with Taimur Rahman of Laal

The title of our play ‘Milne Do’ was also the title of a 2006 documentary by journalist Beena Sarwar about Kashmiris separated across the divide. The peace initiative Aman ki Asha launched by the Times of India and Jang Group, Pakistan, also has a campaign called Milne Do, against visa restrictions between India and Pakistan.

Moved to look beyond the surface, I discussed the idea of this play with my mentor Mahesh Bhatt who has long been working on India-Pakistan peace along with the journalist Kuldip Nayar.

With his go-ahead, Danish Iqbal and I began discussing the script, music and actors with colleagues in Pakistan. We now had to visit and get a taste of life across the border in order to take the project forward.

To be honest, I was a bit nervous about the prospect. That changed when I met Mansoor Ahmad Khan, Deputy High commissioner of Pakistan to India. His appreciation of our efforts boosted my morale and I became excited about the prospect of a cultural collaboration between talented Indians and Pakistanis. In Lahore, not for a moment did I feel that I was not in India. The food reminded me of the old Delhi lanes where I wander often to satiate my taste buds. The culture was rich, much like back home and I was simply bowled over by the warmth of my hosts.

On my return, when I told friends in India about my experience in Pakistan, how I felt I have a second home there that I will visit again, they could sense my joy. Earlier, when I discussed this project, I could see an element of suspicion and fear in their minds. Now, to my surprise, they said they would like to go with me next time, and share my happy experience.

In Lahore, Danish and I were taken aback by the amount of young talent we witnessed when he held a workshop with members of Azad Theatre. We re-connected with the band Laal again whom we had met in India earlier. Taimur Rahman, the lead singer, not only took us around the city but agreed to be on board for the play.

I found so many similarities and so few differences between the two nations. We hear a lot in the media about the worsening law and order situation in Pakistan. The truth is that like our citizens, the people there are also fighting back. Like us, they too are affected by terrorism. I was a witness to that when Pakistan’s heart bled after the inhuman attack on children in Peshawar.

We were in between workshops for ‘Milne Do’ when we heard about the Peshawar attack. Everyone was shocked. It was sad and painful to see people of all age groups come out on the streets of Lahore to protest peacefully through a candle light march just like we have done at India Gate. I realized that we have the same blood and the same soul.

With Azad Theatre’s Malik Aslam and Sarfaraz Ansari: outside their office

I heard radio channels playing the heart-rending duet “Lukka chupi bahut hui saamne aaja na” by the nightingale of India Lata Mangeshkar and Mozart of Madras A. R. Rahman from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Rang De Basanti’. Even at that moment of emotional havoc the Pakistanis could connect with Bollywood. The lyrical genius of Prasoon Joshi in expressing the pain of a mother searching for a lost child echoed with every mother in Pakistan that day.

Our cross-border production is an ambitious plan given the restrictive visa regime and ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan but we are ready to take on this daunting task. We want to conduct rehearsals in both countries, and stage the play in Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, and other cities. We hope to open the play on April 15 at New Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium, and in Lahore and Karachi in May.

For me, Aman ki Asha is not just a few pictures and articles in newspapers but the aspiration to get people from both nations together on a platform and create something beautiful and magical. I believe it’s time we bridge the divide and push for peaceful relations between both countries. I hope that our production will fill at least some gaps between us.

Imran Zahid is an Indian actor, and Director of Take One School of Mass
Communication, New Delhi. Email: [email protected]