Indian director to make film on Malala

DPA/New Delhi

An Indian filmmaker is making a film about Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who is currently recovering in Britain from injuries inflicted by Taliban gunmen, a news report said yesterday.

Director Amjad Khan said all the cast of his film except the lead actor had been finalized, but that he would not like to reveal their names for security reasons, the Times of India reported.

“I don’t see her as a woman or a girl, I see her as a revolution.  She was all of 15, and yet, was a beacon of hope for millions of women the world over,” Khan was quoted as saying.

“In a country where education is still just a word for many, I think Malala’s fight for the right to live life on her terms makes for explosive material for a film,” Khan said.

Malala was shot on a schoolbus in Pakistan on October 9 as a “punishment” for her campaign for girls’ education in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had banned girls attending school when it controlled the area in 2008-2009.

Khan’s debut feature film - Le Gaya Saddam (Saddam has taken it) - dealt with the Islamic divorce system and evoked protests from some radical Muslim groups, as well as telephone threat calls and a fatwa from a Muslim cleric in the northern Indian town of Jaipur.

Khan’s new film is due to hit the floor by the end of December. Khan said the name of the actor playing the role of Malala would be revealed only a week before the film was released, again, for security reasons.

“I will call her character Malala if permissions fall in place,” Khan was quoted as saying.