Shyam Benegal Rubbishes Reports of Indo-Pak Film With Fawad Khan

Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal is not producing a Indo-Pak film featuring Fawad Khan.

A leading daily today reported that veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal will be producing a film titled Ye Raaste Hain Pyar Ke, an Indo-Pak cross border film to be directed by Harsh Narayan. The report also suggests that Pakistani actor Fawad Khan will star in the film in the role of a singer.

However, speaking to The Quint, Benegal says he’s surprised by the news report and he has no idea about what the film is or who the people behind it are.

I don’t know this film, this is rubbish that’s been going around. I am being pestered about something I don’t know anything about. It’s some silly old film being made by somebody, I don’t even know who these people are. They have quoted me in the piece without having interviewed me. I am not involved in the project at all.

Shyam Benegal, Filmmaker

Yes, the report actually quotes Shyam Benegal saying that the he has “found a mad-creative filmmaker in Harsh” and believes he can “take on all creative responsibilities necessary in making this film.”

At a time when the IMPPA has called for a ban on Pakistani actors in India, this report inevitably grabbed a lot of attention by announcing a cross-border film which would be produced by none other than Shyam Benegal - a Padma Bhushan recipient and Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner. Predictably, the news was soon buzzing online with media outlets putting out the same information.

Benegal stating that he has nothing to do with a film which is reported widely to be “producing” comes as a surprise. The ball is now in the newspaper’s court to clear the air on how this report became the lead story in their Entertainment section.