‘Shab’ director Onir reveals why he couldn’t work with Pakistani singer Atif Aslam

The man behind iconic films like ‘My Brother… Nikhil’, ‘Bas Ek Pal’, ‘I Am’ and many more is back with his new venture titled ‘Shab’. Starring Raveena Tandon, Ashish Bisht and Arpita Chatterjee, the film is all about an aspiring actor and his struggle to attain fame. The movie looks interesting and especially the songs of this film are gaining mileage. But, apparently the director wanted to work with Pakistani music sensation Atif Aslam for this project. He wanted Atif to create music for this film, but due to people’s outrage over Pakistani artistes working in Bollywood, Onir could not work with him.

In a latest interview with a news agency, Onir revealed about the same. He stated, “I really wanted to (work with Atif Aslam). It would have been so amazing, just like a retreating therapy. But unfortunately, at the point when we had to record, things were not great between (the neighbouring countries)… There were a lot of problems happening with films and ours being a small film I couldn’t afford that kind of thing.”

Post Uri Attacks, Indians revolted in full power against Pakistani artistes working in Bollywood. Karan Johar’s ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ suffered the major backlash as it had Fawad Khan in a pivotal role. Onir was not in the state to get involved in a problem with his film ‘Shab’. The director further stated, “I understood the sensitivity. I have a lot of friends in Pakistan and I have been to the country. I think it is a loss for both our industry if we don’t exchange talent, but the entire situation is complex. Both me and Atif discussed (about it). We will work together in future if we didn’t do this.”

‘Shab’ releases on June 30. (Also Read: The other side of ‘Shab’ characters: As day turns into night, alter egos emerge)

Nikita Thakkar

A strongly opinionated, free-spirited, budding Bollywood journalist, she likes to write anything in her own quirky style. When not running around to get assigned tasks completed, you will find her either painting, indulging in photography or dreaming in the la la land.