Films cannot change the world, they can only provoke people to think," says Hansal Mehta, director of Shahid, a biopic based on the life of slain human rights activist Shahid Azmi. Mehta and actor Raj Kumar Yadav, who plays the lead role in the film, were present at the Screen Preview held at Express Towers, Nariman Point on Wednesday.
The film explores Shahid's journey from his days in the terrorist camps of Kashmir as a misguided youngster and being wrongly framed and imprisoned under the anti-
terrorism law to becoming a lawyer. It's a story of a common man who comes to terms with inequality and prejudice after the Mumbai 1993 blasts.
"I've always said that I was born in Bombay and now I live in Mumbai. They are two different cities," says Mehta, talking about how the city's psyche has been affected by communal riots in the past few years. Mehta found inspiration in Azmi's life, his struggle and death at the age of 32.
"The film also discovers a side of Mumbai that was never seen before. We shot most of the film on real locations such as Pydhonie, Kurla and Govandi. Only the courtroom scenes were shot on sets," says Mehta, who would visit courts in Mumbai to ensure minute details are incorporated into the scenes. For Shahid's character, Yadav spent hours inside courtrooms listening to lawyers arguing cases, he even met Azmi's family. "I wanted to understand how his mind worked because physical attributes can be taken care of but mannerisms are tough," says Yadav, who studied Islam and even read the Quran to prepare for this role. Known for his roles in Dibakar Banerjee's Love, Sex aur Dhoka and more recently Abhishek Kapoor's Kai Po Che!, Yadav was able to become one with Azmi's character, a trait that made Mehta pick him since he wanted audiences to remember Shahid and not the actor essaying his role.
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