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Fans urge Shakeela director to not skip facts in her biopic
Filmmaker Indrajit Lankesh’s announcement about making a biopic on south Indian adult film actor Shakeela has generated quite a buzz. And with the Richa Chadhastarrer film’s shoot having started, he has received numerous mails and messages urging him to make sure he does justice to the story.
Shakeela was known for her roles in adult films before she went on to star in mainstream Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films, earning unparalleled popularity.
“We were overwhelmed to see the amount of recognition Shakeela has in pop culture and so many people wrote emails and messages to us. That built even more pressure on us, but we have taken the task at hand and are certain about telling the story with absolute reality. Shakeela has been kind to be a part of the process and also provided insights for it. People and her fans had unanimously requested to ensure her reality won’t be morphed or tampered with in any way and that her truth is shown as is, on the screen,” says Indrajit.
The director of Kannada films such as Monalisa (2004) and Aishwarya (2006) agrees that making a biopic can be very taxing, and the sheer amount of detail and research that goes into one means that the responsibilities of the entire crew are doubled.
“Whenever you essay a story on screen of a real person, there is a tremendous pressure and responsibility towards the entire team to do absolute justice with it. There is no scope of tarnishing any information of the person whose story we are showing on celluloid. Shakeela and I worked together in 2003 and back then I was compelled to work on a film on her story,” says Indrajit.