Nazar, a supernatural thriller film that featured Ashmit Patel in the lead role was shown on May 20, marking exactly 19 years since its release. The movie is worth remembering due to it been an entry point of Pakistani actress Meera into Bollywood. Nazar, which was aired before its release through a promo and title song portraying Ashmit Patel’s intimate moment with Meera. That created a lot of controversies in Pakistan because the film will be kept on talking about. As Nazar celebrated its 19th anniversary, Bollywood Hungama exclusively spoke with Ashmit Patel who opened up on this controversial episode.
“Pakistan Government denied him visa for his impending amorous dialogue with Meera,” said Ashmit Patel exclusively as he spoke to Bollywood Hungama.
According to Mr.Ashmit, “We took this film at Karachi’s Kara Film Festival. At some point in the title track of the movie there is a slight kiss between me and Meera. It didn’t go down well with them. I don’t know whether it was an India vs Pakistan thing – a Pakistani girl kissing an Indian man – or a Hindu vs Muslim thing – a Muslim girl kissing a Hindu boy. They did not end up doing anything about that except reject my visa for the premiere only.”
Ashmit further added, “The film released in Pakistan during which premier took place without me.”
This move made no sense at all; if anything, even the cameraman should not have attended since he shot the scene too steamy according to the plot of director Saawan Kumar Tak’s movie Lawaaris (1981). Commenting on this issue Ashmi told me that they wanted to make DOPs feel like they are so significant when they were not directly involved so rejecting mine was clearly telling me that don’t kiss our lady(laughs)!”
