Collaborative cinema

Bollywood has spent the past few years capitalising on Pakistani talent. Whether its singers or actors, Pakistani artists have found success in India. Jawad Ahmad’s Virsa, which released this year, was a collaborative project. Up next for cross-border productions is Humayun Saeed’s joint venture Daag, with Bollywood veteran Mahesh Bhatt.

What sets their film apart is that unlike all previous India-Pakistan collaborations for which shooting took place abroad even when the story was set in Pakistan, Daag will be shot in the streets of Lahore and Karachi.

Initially titled Balla, the film Daag is being produced by Shahzad Naseeb and Samina, Saeed’s wife. The shooting of the film is set to kick-start soon and the script has been finalised. Written by Shagufta Rafique, the writer of Woh Lamhe and Jashnn, the film tells the story of a rape victim. It focuses on how she survives being rejected by society and the changed behaviour of friends and family.

The film will also mark Rafique’s debut as a film director.

“Humayun Saeed is a very famous Pakistani actor. He approached me to write a script. While I was working on the script, I realised that no one else would be able to express it (on screen) than me, because no one would be able to bring out the soul of this film better than I can. So I told Humayun that I want to direct it and he was kind enough to agree,” Rafique told IANS. She used to work in a bar and was discovered in Mumbai by filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

When asked why she chose Pakistan as a backdrop for her directorial debut, Rafique said it was not planned.

Salman says captaincy no ‘hassle’

LEEDS: Salman Butt has insisted captaining a young Pakistan side shouldn’t be “that much of a hassle” when he leads the team in the second Test against Australia at Headingley.

Salman was thrust in to what is widely regarded as one of the most difficult jobs in world cricket after former captain Shahid Afridi quit the five-day format after the team’s 150-run loss in the first Test at Lord’s last week.

Former vice-captain Salman, a 25-year-old opener who scored Pakistan’s only two fifties at Lord’s, will become his country’s seventh Test captain in three years when the Australia finale starts today.

However, he takes over a team without former captains and senior batsmen Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan, both suspended following the team’s 3-0 series loss in Australia earlier this year.

However, Salman, said that he is not overwhelmed leading a side that has less experience.

‘Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar not in Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday categorically stated that neither Mullah Omar nor Osama bin Laden are in Pakistan and if any one has any credible and verifiable information it should be shared.

Talking to media at the Prime Minister House, Gilani said that bin Laden was not included in the agenda of the meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

He said that if the United States has any evidence regarding bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, then it should share it with Pakistan.

Just a day earlier, Clinton, in a television interview, had said that she believed bin Laden was still in Pakistan. “I believe (bin Laden) is here in Pakistan and it would be very helpful if we could take them (Al Qaeda leaders),” Clinton said.

India, Pakistan tone down high-kicking border show

NEW DELHI: A daily, goose-stepping display of choreographed aggression by soldiers on the India-Pakistan border has been toned down because of knee injuries to the participants, a report said Wednesday.

For years, the military flag-lowering ceremony that takes place every evening at the Wagah border post has drawn crowds of partisan tourists who cheer every hostile strut and stare traded by the border guards on both sides. Despite the ritualised hostility, the show and the atmosphere surrounding it is one of good-natured rivalry and, according to the Hindustan Times, the two sides have now reached an agreement to take things a little easier.

“We had proposed a lowering of the aggression in the gestures during the daily parade, and subsequently took a unilateral decision to implement that,” a senior Indian Border Security Force officer, Himmat Singh, told the Times. “Now, the Pakistan Rangers have also agreed to the proposal, and toned down their drill,” Singh said.

Nato seeking long-term partnership with Pakistan: Rasmussen

ISLAMABAD: Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) said the organisation is seeking a long-term partnership with Pakistan, noting that Pakistan’s relation with Nato is not limited to Afghanistan only.

The  Nato  secretary general was speaking to the media in a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi during his first official visit to Islamabad. He further said that reports of al Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan are baseless.

Rasmussen said that Nato will not leave Afghanistan prematurely emphasising that a premature exit can result in a Taliban take over.