Valley is beautiful, want to do more films here: Anushka Sen

M Aamir Khan

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 29

Ahead of the release of movie “Lihaaf” shot in old Srinagar city, popular teenaged star Anushka Sen said she would love to return to the Kashmir valley and shoot for more films. She also said more crews from Bollywood and television industry should come to the Valley to shoot films and serials.

“Gulmarg is so beautiful… Srinagar too is a very beautiful place where we roamed around freely during the shooting. We would love to shoot there again and do films there. People should visit Srinagar… people are so good….I really hope people visit Srinagar and make films there,” Sen said while talking to The Tribune.

Directed by Rahat Kazmi, “Lihaaf”, which is based on celebrated Urdu author Ismat Chughtai’s controversial 1942 short story, was majorly shot at the Jalali Heritage House in the old city where the crew recreated Aligarh of the pre-Partition period.

The poster of the film was released at the recent Cannes Film Festival. Sen plays Chughtai’s teenaged role in the movie.

Though famous for playing ‘Meher’ in the popular serial “Baal Veer” besides acting in other serials such as “Yahaan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli”, “Devon Ke Dev... Mahadev” and “Comedy Circus” and film “Crazy Cukkad Family”, she said her character in “Lihaaf” was completely different from her previous roles.

“I am very lucky to play a very strong and bold character. Rahat Kazmi gave me all the details and made me understand the character of Ismat Chughtai. It was completely different from the roles I have played before,” she said while adding that other senior actors of the film especially Sonal Sehgal and Namita Lal too helped her a lot in understanding the character.

Pertinently, the late Chughtai had been slapped with a legal notice and later defended her case in a Lahore court during the pre-Partition period for dealing with a subject considered a taboo in society.

While national award-winning actress Tanishta Chatterjee plays the role of Ismat Chughtai, Kashmiri actor Mir Sarwar, who has acted in acclaimed Bollywood films like “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”, “Phantom”, “Dishoom” and “Jolly LLB-2”, is also playing one of the lead roles in the film.