Minority Reports

So what prompted this sudden interest in movies related to Islam and terror? Rensil D’Silva,director of Kurban,says he has taken up the issue because he found that people have started connecting Taliban with every Muslim throughout the world. “The reason I wanted to do this movie is because everyone talks only about the White viewpoint,” adds D’Silva. “Why have we not heard enough from the people of Iraq whose homes have been bombed? What about innocent people in Afghanistan who have lost their entire families? I’m not taking any side,I just believe that,as filmmakers,we need to be socially responsible and show both the sides of the coin. I don’t think that the media is doing that justice so that’s precisely what I’ve done,” he says about his Saif-Kareena Kapoor-starrer.

Film-trade analyst Taran Adarsh also believes that Indian cinema is going the right way by moving away from fluff and gloss to serious subjects. “The reality is that the world is divided and Muslims are being looked at differently. So there must be light thrown on to this problem through our films.”

Even Johar,whose films are usually filled with candy-floss romance,has taken keen interest in this issue. Johar is producing Kurban and he’s directing the Shah Rukh-Kajol starrer My Name is Khan. “The audience is changing now. They are intelligent and want films to match this. For me,it was very challenging to develop something that was so new to me. But it was an issue so close to our heart,and we really wanted to make the film,” says Johar.

With such similarity in the backdrop,there’s bound to be similarity in the script as well. Does this mean that the audience will have to sit through the same story again and again? “I think all the films just a have a backdrop that has a bearing to the incident of 9/11 or other terrorist attacks. But each film has a different story of different people which is the main plot of the film. The backdrop cannot make it similar,but the plot will make them all different,” Kabir Khan,director of New York says.

This move might be looked upon as the industry to want to bring about some social change,or it could just be filmmakers cashing on to what is seen as an easy emotional topic to most of the world. “We are in no way using this real incident as a means to promote the film. But it’s a harsh reality; we’re just showing you the truth behind it,” says Shah Rukh,actor and co-producer of My Name is Khan. “As Indian filmmakers,we have the advantage of the biggest film industry of the world. Why not use it in a good way?”