Mahesh Bhatt sees gradual erosion of Indo-Pak hostility

Karachi
Renowned Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is glad to see ties between his country and Pakistan gradually improving.
“We could never have dreamt of Indian movies being screened in Pakistan but now that’s so commonplace,” said Mahesh, flanked by his actress-turned-director daughter Pooja Bhatt, at a press conference at the National Institute of Performing Arts (Napa) on Tuesday.
“This is certainly indicative of the gradual erosion of hostility. If this trend continues, and we sustain these contacts, civil societies on both sides would be activated and relations would surely head for normalisation.”
Mahesh said when he and his daughter came to Pakistan in 2003, there was some kind of skepticism and people asked as to what use it all would be, given the latent bickering between the two countries but then everybody saw the appreciation that Fahd Khan received in India and exchanges had been more frequent.
“A lot has happened over the last decade,” he added.
When a questioner pointed out the shabby treatment meted out to a Pakistani TV team by the Indian authorities which asked them to leave, he acknowledged that there had been such hiccups. However, he added that the Indian media and show business had taken up the cudgels most actively on behalf of the Pakistani visitors. As such, it was proved that the media could be really instrumental in countering this trend.
“Similarly,” he noted, “Our team had a hard time coming over to the current theatre festival. However, our counterparts at Napa went out of their way to persuade the authorities to finally allow our visit.”
“It is sad that whenever we want we can go to Sri Lanka, Bangkok or London, we just go but we can’t go to Karachi or Murree. We have to go through such painstaking measures for that. We hope that this will be a short-lived phenomenon,” the filmmaker said.
“I will support any event that promotes cultural ties between the two countries. This closeness and cooperation will also prove to be a very economically lucrative proposition for the people of the two countries.”
Mahesh also observed that Pakistan was teeming with theatrical talent.
When a questioner asked Pooja about her rift with Aamir Khan and their decision to never act with each other in a film, she said there was no row and they had just “agreed to disagree”. “In any case, we have been cast together in one movie only,” she added.