Debutant director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan shot his film Lahore at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore, where the Sri Lankan cricket team faced a terrorist attack recently.
Debutant director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan shot his film Lahore at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore, where the Sri Lankan cricket team faced a terrorist attack recently.
"It wasn't easy," says the reticent director whose film won the prestigious jury award for Best Feature film at the 42nd WorldFest International Film Festival in Houston last month.
"There was redtapism and a huge outcry on both sides of the border. After 26/11 people in India and Pakistan wanted to know what I was doing making a film set in Lahore."
Chauhan says there's no Pak-bashing in his film. "It may be a fashionable thing to do. But my film is set against the backdrop of sports. I've shot a kickboxing tournament in the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore."
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He adds, "But you can't blame them. Filmmakers from India have gone on their side and shot films that
portray them in hostile light.
My Lahore is a contemporary look at a city which in many ways is a close kin of our own country."
About winning one of the highest awards at Houston, Chauhan says, "What did the trick for Lahore is that it isn't a typical song and dance Bollywood film. It doesn't follow any formula."
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Seating capacity of the Gaddafi stadium
Who is Col Gaddafi?
Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, also known as Colonel Gaddafi, is the de facto leader of Libya sinceu00a0 1969.
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In 1974, Colonel Gaddafi made a rousing speech at an Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting in favour of Pakistan's right to pursue nuclear weapons. The stadium was then renamed in his honour.
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