Guest:
Dhananjayan Govind (Chief - South Business) UTV
Direction:
Hansal Mehta
"Shahid" traces the story of a slain human rights activist and lawyer Shahid Azmi. Set during the communal violence that was unleashed in the city of Mumbai in 1993, we see a remarkable tale unfold in front of us. From attempting to become a terrorist, to being wrongly imprisoned under the anti-terrorism law, to becoming a lawyer, a champion of human rights (particularly the Muslim minorities in India), Shahid traces the inspiring personal journey of a boy while following the rise of communal violence in India. This story of an impoverished Muslim struggling to come to terms with injustice, inequality and rising above his circumstances is an inspiring testament to the human spirit.
| Language: | Hindi |
| Running Time: | 129 mins |
| Release Date: | October 18, 2013 |
| CBFC/MPAA Rating: | A (CBFC) |
| Directed by: | Hansal Mehta |
| Produced by: | Anurag Kashyap, Sunil Bohra, Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Shailesh R Singh |
| Written by: | Sameer Gautam Singh, Hansal Mehta |
| Starring: |
Lal, Sreenivasan, Vinay Forrt, Sajitha Madathil, Riya Saira
|
| Music by: | Rajkumar Rao, Tigmanshu Dhulia, K K Menon, Prabhleen Sandhu |
| Shot by: | Anuj Dhawan |
The film had its world premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival's 'City to City' programme in September 2012. The film was selected for distribution by UTV Motion Pictures.
Trivia
Awards
Hansal Mehta started his career in 1993, with TV cookery show, Khana Khazana, hosted by Sanjeev Kapoor on Zee TV, where he worked till 2000.
Meanwhile he also directed several short fiction based series like Love Stories followed by Rishtey.
Hansal Mehta has directed many films including his early independent features Jayate, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar based on the issue of migrants in Mumbai, and the cult gangster film Chhal. For much of the last ten years, Mehta has directed more commercial and mainstream films including Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai, Raakh, and Woodstock Villa.
After a soul-searching sabbatical to explore social work and rural life, Mehta has returned to his independent sensibilities with Shahid. He went to direct CityLights starring Rajkummar Rao about a poor farmer from Rajasthan coming to Mumbai in search of livelihood.
Dhananjayan Govind who is not only a self proclaimed business man, but also a film academician / historian / enthusiast unlike any. His passion and understanding of Indian cinema has made him a successful producer in the contemporary film industry and chief of Disney-UTV Motion Pictures South. From him we can certainly hope to get some insight into how the UTV Spotboy team was able to identify this film, which part of the script intrigued them the most and led them to select it for production & distribution, and most importantly whether such an honestly made film was able to reap profit for the producers. He has also authored a book, 'The Best of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2010', that portrays the breadth and depth of his Tamil cinema knowledge.
"Heroes are not always born out acts of physical valor – Shahid had undoubtedly saved the lives of almost a dozen innocents from the hard end of the judicial system, ultimately to lose his own in the process. This movie is a fitting tribute to this ‘unsung’ hero with powerfully emotional performances from the cast enabled by some realistic portrayal by the director – definitely one to cherish and preserve!" -PipingHotViews (pipinghotviews.com)
