Filmmaker Faruk Kabir had hoped for a happily ever after when he married Shoksanam, a 20-year-old Uzbekistan national, in December 2022 in Delhi. A year later, his marriage has taken an ugly turn. The ‘Khuda Haafiz’ director says that his wife fled from Mumbai with their newly born daughter Aarya Fiza Kabir, her parents (Dilfuza Gaipov and Tejas Khanna alias Muhammad Ali), and her brothers on December 20.

Faruk promptly filed a habeas corpus plea with the Bombay High Court on December 26. Swift action from law enforcement resulted in stopping them from leaving the country. They were traced in Amritsar, following which the baby girl, Shoksanam, and her mother were brought back to Mumbai.

After 11 days of running from pillar to post, Faruk finally held his baby girl on New Year’s Eve. He shares, “I couldn’t stop crying while cradling her. My daughter was with me for about half an hour before she was taken away along with Sanam, and her family by the Versova police. While Tejas Khanna is still at large, the rest are out on conditional bail, prohibiting them from leaving the city.”

The habeas corpus petition is listed to be heard on January 16. The filmmaker plans to appeal for the right to see his daughter, spend a few hours with her a day, and get her Aadhaar card and Indian passport. “Aarya is a citizen of India by birth and ensuring she gets the nationality she belongs to is my fight. I didn’t marry and relocate. Sanam moved to India to live with me,” he exclaims.

Ask him what led to this unexpected turn of events, and Faruk replies, “It was a happy marriage until our daughter was born. I was informed that Sanam’s mother and her stepfather wanted our daughter to have a birth certificate from Uzbekistan. I was baffled because Aarya was born here. I tried to reason with them, but they were adamant about obtaining Uzbekistan nationality for her. Sanam argued that, as a Muslim, she felt unsafe here, but I thought it was an excuse. I am a Muslim and have never faced any discrimination in my country.”

“Now, when I look back, I realise it was all part of a plan, even the marriage. It is a classic case of baby trapping. They thought they would be able to escape with my baby and continue tormenting me. However, I am not going to be silent because I have nothing to hide,” he retorts.

Faruk met Sanam in 2019 while he was shooting in Uzbekistan. He recounts, “My ‘Khuda Haafiz’ (2019) crew hired Sanam’s parents as interpreters. In 2022, I revisited Uzbekistan. Her family got in touch with me again, and Sanam and I discussed a potential future together.”

He believes Sanam was influenced by her parents when she travelled to Uzbekistan in July 2023. Sanam’s parents and her brothers came to India to stay with her 15 days before her delivery. He recounts, “My baby was born on November 29, and by December 9, Sanam’s stepfather had procured an emergency travel card for her that read, ‘Return to Uzbekistan’. How can she return to a country she doesn’t belong to? Besides, I had not given consent for that, which means that possibly a forged undertaking or NOC with my fake signature was likely presented to the officials. Fortunately, the FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration Offices) asked them to produce a copy of the electricity bill, which they couldn’t, thwarting their plan of escaping to Uzbekistan with my child overnight.”

While it appears to be a long-winding legal journey ahead, Faruk is ready for it. He asserts, “I know this is the beginning of a long battle. Now that my baby has been found, I want her to be with me. I also hope the police will act on my complaint for forgery, impersonation, and identity theft, filed on December 16. I will go to the courts to fight for my daughter’s custody and demand the issuance of her Indian passport and Aadhaar card, which is her right.”

Senior PI Crime Branch Zone 9 (Mumbai), Daya Nayak tells us, “The crime branch conducted a parallel investigation and traced the complainant’s (Faruk Kabir's) daughter, wife, and family in Amritsar. We fulfilled our duty by bringing them back to Mumbai. He had also filed a habeas corpus plea with the Bombay High Court, which instructed us to produce the child, his wife, and her family. Additionally, a complaint was lodged with the Versova Police by him, accusing the wife and her family of obtaining a travel document for the child without the father’s consent and theft. The case will be further investigated by the Versova police.”

Ganesh Pawar, Senior PI of Versova Police Station, states, “The daughter, wife, and her family are currently residing separately under our surveillance, and we have seized their travel documents. The habeas corpus plea is scheduled for a hearing before the Bombay High Court on January 16, and we will adhere to its directives.”

With the Coronavirus-triggered pandemic shutting down theatres, many films had to opt for a digital release, and among them was the Vidyut Jammwal and Shivaleeka Oberoi-starrer, Khuda Haafiz. Its director, Faruk Kabir, has no complaints. “I expected the story to resonate with youngsters, but thanks to OTT, people across all age groups reached out to me, telling how the film had impacted them,” he relays.

Soon after the film’s release, the makers announced Khuda Haafiz: Chapter 2. Faruk admits that the idea of a sequel had always been on his mind. “I felt that the story of Sameer and Nargis remained unfinished at the end of Part 1, but at that time, I thought it would be preposterous to suggest a sequel. I’d once shared the idea with Vidyut vaguely, just so his imagination could take flight. Post the success of the film, Kumar ji (Kumar Mangat, producer) was eager I carry the journey forward,” he reveals.

Khuda Haafiz was inspired by the real-life story of a newlywed couple. Sameer and Nargis’s world turns upside down when they lose their jobs during the economic slowdown of 2008. When an agent offers them jobs in Oman they apply and she gets a call first. On arrival, she calls her husband to say that something doesn’t seem right and begs him to rescue her, but on reaching there he discovers his better half is in the shackles of human traffickers. After a desperate fight, with the help of the local cops and the judiciary, he manages to rescue her and they return to India.

Faruk shares that he never met the wife, and only interacted with the husband once during his research. They belonged to a simple, conservative family in Hyderabad and after the incident, they were forced to move to another city and even change their names legally. “The core idea for Chapter 2 also comes from them and certain incidents that happened with them. They went through a literal agnipariksha,” he says.

Faruk admits that he still has three months of writing ahead of him and plans to take Chapter 2 on the floors in April 2021, and release it in theatres this time, in the third quarter of next year. While Part 1 was majorly shot in Uzbekistan, he is still undecided about where to set Chapter 2. “There’s a possibility in the script for the film to be shot in two different locations,” he shares.

The filmmaker admits that the sequel will be a bigger challenge for his lead pair and a more difficult film to approach emotionally. “Since it’s Vidyut, there will be action, but only what is plausible to Sameer’s world,” Faruk insists, all praise for his actor-friend. “Our relationship goes beyond films. After a long time, I’ve found a friend within the industry. I don’t see him the way others do and that allows me to present him in a new way. We talk not only about cinema, but also about life. I want to showcase that depth in his personality on screen too.”

Faruk hasn’t given a thought to the rest of the cast yet but reveals that there will be three to four significant secondary characters who are still being developed. Meanwhile, during the lockdown, he locked one more script which he is co-producing, but will not direct. “It will feature a very big South star,” he says, refusing to divulge more.

Onkar Kulkarni (BOMBAY TIMES; August 13, 2020)

Ten years after making his Bollywood debut as a director with Allah Ke Banday (2010), filmmaker Faruk Kabir is all set to present his next movie, Khuda Haafiz, which releases on an OTT platform this Friday. The film, based on a real-life incident, has Vidyut Jammwal playing a common man on a mission to rescue his wife (Shivaleeka Oberoi), who has gone missing in another country. In a conversation with Bombay Times, the director talks about the long gap between his two directorial ventures, how a Times of India news report inspired him to make this film and working with Vidyut. Excerpts:

What was it about this particular news report that inspired you to make a film on it?
I remember reading this news on page one of The Times Of India. I was immediately drawn to it because of the emotional aspect of the story. I cut the article and kept it with me. That story stayed with me for a long time, so I decided to pursue it further. It’s an inspiring tale of a common man, who sets off to a foreign land to rescue his wife. Neither does he understand the language, nor does he have a support system or money. I liked the basic premise of this article — how far can you go for love? I think it is a relatable topic and that drew me towards it.

This film is based on a real-life couple. Were they a part of the filmmaking process?
I have only met the man, on whom Vidyut’s character is loosely based. I haven’t met his wife. He wanted complete anonymity, so I can’t reveal who he is. It took me two months to build enough trust for him to agree to meet me. He comes from a very simple space, and this journey has been life-changing for him.

Vidyut is synonymous with the action genre, how did you zero in on him to play your common man?
It was during my meeting with the producers of the film that Vidyut’s name came up. I just wanted to cast someone who would surrender to the vision of Khuda Haafiz. After a couple of meetings with Vidyut, I was convinced that he was apt for the role. In fact, I could see similarities between Sameer and Vidyut. I feel it was brave of him to take up this character, because it meant he would have to go against the grain of everything he has worked so hard to build —this larger-than-life action hero image. Here, I was asking him to get beaten, battered and bruised. Vidyut has shown so much maturity, not once did he ask me to make any changes so that he could showcase his action prowess.

After Allah Ke Banday in 2010,why did it take you such a long time to direct your next film?
It’s not like I didn’t work for these ten years (laughs!). I was busy making ad films. I did one beautiful commercial with Madhuri Dixit Nene and another with Virat Kohli, among many other interesting ones. I also directed some amazing web shows. I want the movie-making process to be organic. I want to direct films, for the stories that I am writing. This is one space where you can truly express yourself as a storyteller. It’s not that I don’t wish to direct films that are written by others, but I need to feel connected to these scripts, and that hasn’t happened so far.

Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 11, 2020)

Vidyut Jammwal’s upcoming film, Khuda Haafiz, is inspired by a true story writer-director Faruk Kabir stumbled upon while reading the newspaper. “It was a small article but it stayed with me, which is why I decided to make a film around it. Research took three months and another nine months went in writing the script,” he informs, hopeful that the emotional narrative of how far an engineer from Lucknow would go to save his wife, abducted in another country, will strike a chord with others too.

His leading man is moving away from his larger-than-life action image for his dramatic love story. “You are tempted to make Vidyut do stunts more daring than what he has done before, but I was very clear I wanted him to go against what’s been already done in a way that he owns this space,” says Faruk.

The basic premise of this Kumar Mangat and Abhishek Pathak production is similar to Baaghi 3, which showed Tiger Shroff take on a terror outlet in Syria, after his brother is kidnapped while on an official assignment. Faruk admits that while many have been pointing to the similarity, the films are dramatically opposite with different sensibilities. “Baaghi is fictional and all action, while ours is a love story rooted in reality. I am not worried about any comparisons,” asserts the filmmaker who, having helmed many web shows, is not apprehensive about a digital release. “Some of the biggest properties in the last decade, including Game Of Thrones and Money Heist, are digital releases. I’m just glad our film is getting a release at a time like this. Several filmmakers are in a soup after their shoot was stalled mid-way,” he sighs.

He shares that the entire post-production of the film, which has been extensively shot in Uzbekistan, took place in the middle of the Coronavirus lockdown. “You can’t make an entire film sitting at home, so yes, we did step out of our comfort zone to complete the post production. It was challenging, but this is the new normal,” he reasons.

While this is Faruk’s first feature film after the 2010 drama, Allah Ke Banday, featuring Naseeruddin Shah, Sharman Joshi and Atul Kulkarni, the filmmaker informs that in the last decade he has directed more than 60 ad films and a few web shows. He made his directorial debut with a short film, The Awakening, with Ajay Devgn. “It was warmly received and while I’m not in touch with Ajay bhai anymore, he is always cordial when I bump into him,” he says fondly.

Meanwhile, the lockdown has given a lot of time to creative people to work on their scripts without distractions. Has Faruk locked his next? “I have written the first draft, but it will take another six month to write a quality screenplay,” he signs off, refusing to divulge details.