Click to play videoMumbai: Documentary filmmaker Kabir Khan is as stunned as the rest of the country about the slaying of telecom engineer K Suryanarana at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Kabir has visited Afghanistan some ten times in the past ten years. He's made two documentaries on the Taliban and has just completed a feature film, Kabul Express which has been shot in Afghanistan.
"It's really tragic, the case of Suryanarayan. One can feel what his family must be going through. But I think this whole perception about Afghanistan, there is something wrong with this because it's not like that the Taliban are ruling everwhere," says the filmmaker.
He reiterates, "Kabul is safe as well as some other parts. It's about knowing where to draw the line and know which part is safe."
Khan's feature debut Kabul Express is one of the first Hindi films to be shot extensively in Afghanistan, following Mukul Anand's Khuda Gawah.
Starring John Abraham and Arshad Warsi as two Indian journalists on an assignment to cover the Taliban's hold on Afghanistan, Kabul Express draws on the director's own experiences of shooting in the troubled country.
"Of course, there is the shadow of Al-qaida and Taliban looming around the corner. There were some threats that were issued to us but one knew that you cannot do something high profile in Afghanistan and not expect a threat," says Kabir.
"And a mainstream Hindi film being shot in Afghanistan is a sign of normalcy returning to Afghanistan which they obviously don't want," he adds.
Produced by Yashraj Films, Kabul Express is slated for release later this year. With his entire shooting complete, Kabir has no reason to go back anytime soon.
In the wake of recent events, it is perhaps appropriate to say that Bollywood is likely to stay far far away from Afghanistan.
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