Today, there was supposed to be a special premiere show of
Shakeela for a select bunch of people from the film industry and media persons. The film, which chronicles the off screen journey of the erstwhile adult film star Shakeela, has created a lot of curiosity. The film marks the debut of State Award winning director Indrajit Lankesh in Bollywood. It stars
Richa Chadha in the titular role and she has said that she enjoyed working for this film and is eager to see how people react to her role.
The show was called off due to the curfew that was imposed in Karnataka. The initial announcement from the Chief Minister stated that the curfew would be imposed today, leading to the film team thinking about the safety and rules of the state and choosing to call off the premiere. The next order with the revised rules stated the curfew would only be imposed from December 24, which was too late and the show had already be cancelled.
It looks like Bengaluru's cinephiles will now have to wait for their date with Shakeela till Christmas day, which the film is slated to release, with no sneak preview for anyone. Shakeela, which stars Richa in the lead, also has the talented
Pankaj Tripathi,
Rajeev Pillai and Esther Noronha as part of the cast. The film has been shot in Bengaluru, Kerala and Mumbai among other places and is releasing in Hindi as well as all the four South Indian languages, since Shakeela is better known among the audiences in South India. The film's team had Shakeela being a part of the pre and post production, giving her consent to the content and she has also praised Indrajit, who she has worked with before in his Kannada films.