Having shot parts of his film Torbaaz (2020) in Afghanistan, filmmaker Girish Malik is gutted with the present situation in the country. “We may not have shot with actors in Afghanistan but we did shoot backgrounds in the country because the story was set there. We shot in the borders of Afghanistan and in Kyrgyzstan and worked with around 500 native Afgani,” shares Malik.

Talking about his experience of working with the locals, he says, “The moment you meet any Afghani person, you form an immediate connect. They love Bollywood and everything about India. I asked a lot of people about their opinion of India and they told me that when they look at India, they we feel safe. Every Afgani’s dream is to visit India.”

The film, which starred Sanjay Dutt, was set in war-torn Afghanistan. The story of the film was about a coach who wants to train refugee camp kids in cricket, despite opposition from a militant leader, who wants to recruit them as suicide bombers. “When you meet the people there or the refugees, they will tell you that this turmoil has been happening for the last 40 years. It is a great suffering that the country has gone through and continues to,” he laments.

Malik wants normalcy to resume soon so that the cinematic relations between the two countries can continue. “No one can deny the raw beauty which the country has. Every filmmaker will be always very keen to shoot there. I just hope that this is not the end of India and Afganistan film relations,” he ends.