‘Taliban won’t allow Afghanistan film industry to survive’

Filmmaker Kabir Khan is disturbed and concerned about the ongoing Afghanistan crisis with Taliban gaining power, and he fears it will first cut the entertainment cord of the country.

“It is bizarre that after 20 years an organisation like the Taliban can come back. It makes me remember one little incident from my documentary, where we were interviewing some of their members in 2001 post the 9/11 incident. One senior Taliban member just looked straight into my camera, said, ‘You think we are gone, we will be back’,” he says.

The 52-year-old, who documented his own experiences in his directorial debut, Kabul Express (2006), is worried about the safety of the people, women, and artistes. He says his friends have been sending out numerous SOS calls, but he is unable to help.

“One of my friends, actor Bashir has been forced to go underground,” he reveals.

The director feels artistes are anyway soft targets because they are “high profile and recognisable”.

“In the first avatar of Taliban in 1996 -2001, they did not even allow photography. I have serious doubts whether they will let the film industry, which is pretty dynamic now, survive. I don’t know whether they will be allowed to continue or whether anybody has the courage to continue. We know their opinion on cinema and music. The Taliban ideology will not allow them to continue.”

But is he planning a follow up to his documentary? “It is early days. I want to see how it all pans out. But there could be a possibility of doing some work,” he adds.