Aamir Bashir turns director

He was last seen as a police officer, two years ago, in Neeraj Pandey’s critically acclaimed, A Wednesday. Now, Aamir Bashir is ready with his directorial debut, Harud, that has been shot in Srinagar.

He was last seen as a police officer, two years ago, in Neeraj Pandey’s critically acclaimed,

HT Image

A Wednesday

. Now, Aamir Bashir is ready with his directorial debut,

Harud

, that has been shot in Srinagar. He plays one of the pivotal roles in the film that also features Iranian actor Reza Naji who was seen in Majid Majidi’s

Children Of Heaven

.

For Bashir who’s from Kashmir and still has family in the Valley, it took him six years to put the project together.

“I had no plans of getting into direction.

Harud

could well be my only film as a director. I had a story to narrate about the unrest in my home state so I made the movie. I don’t want to start directing Hindi potboilers,” he says.

The actor plans to take

Harud

on the festival circuit, starting with the Rotterdam Film Festival next year. “It’s a story about loss and the struggle to hold on to one’s dignity. It’s not a frivolous

masala

movie set in Kashmir. Right now, no distributor will touch it with a bargepole but may be it could find a buyer with strong word-of-mouth publicity,” he points out.

Bashir hasn’t seen

Lamhaa

, Rahul Dholakia’s just-released film that was set and shot in Srinagar too. “I’m told it’s an intelligent film,” he says. “Thankfully, someone mustered the courage to move beyond the froth.”