I never wanted to film Taslima: Mahesh Bhatt

While a movie on Taslima’s cat is making news now, it has been reported that Mahesh Bhatt developed cold feet after having conceived a project on the controversial author. The director clears the air...Taslima Nasrin is in the news for a film that will be made on her cat, Minu! Titled “Nirbashito”, this Bengali movie by Kaushik Ganguly will trace the agony of the author’s cat when Taslima was forced to leave Kolkata. In the context of this movie, it was reported that Mahesh Bhatt had once developed cold feet after having wanted to make a movie on the author’s life. Says Kaushik, “When I had met Taslima, she told me about how people are apprehensive about courting controversies while wanting to do projects based on her life and writings. My film will not be controversial and isn’t political either. I’ve changed the name of Minu to Baghini. The character of the author inspired by Taslima will be called Nasrin. I am only exploring the agony of two lives forced to stay away from each other and will be off to Sweden soon to scout for the movie’s location. During the course of the conversation, I came to know about Mahesh Bhatt wanting to do a movie based on her life.”However, Bhatt says that he had never intended to make a movie about the author. “I have met Taslima once when she came down to Mumbai. This must have been in early 2000 when she was having problems with her visa. I had also asked Amar Singh to help her get her visa. Javed (Akhtar) and Shabana (Azmi) had come along to welcome Taslima. Back then, director Ashok Pandit had wanted to make a serial based on her book, Lajja. I had asked Taslima if she was open to giving him the rights. However, I never expressed any desire to make a movie on her. Post-“Zakhm” when I faced a problem with right wing Hindu groups, I was clear that I wanted to make movies that seek mass acceptance.”On a personal note, Bhatt says he admires Taslima for speaking her mind. “I have not read her works but have been told that sometimes she is provocative because she wants to use it as a tool to evoke a consituency to rally behind her. I have admiration for Taslima because she is consistent in her world views despite knowing the risks involved. However, I also feel that when a person is accepting the hospitality of a home, one should not be insensitive to the emotions of the people who could be prone to one’s hostile remarks,” he says.Meanwhile, Bhatt is working on his script adaptation of Ray’s “Devi”. Says the director, “After the article on my adaptation was published, I got a call from a girl in Mumbai saying that she is also working on a subject which is inspired by “Devi”. No, she didn’t hurl any plagiarism allegations on me. In my response, I just said: “the more, the merrier”. My script should be ready by December,” he signs off.