The Asian Age

Is Huma part of Sejal Supari?

Sejal Supari is very much happening, and the makers have approached Huma. She has liked the script, and the film will go on floors soon

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A film titled Sejal Supari has been doing the rounds in the media for quite a long time now. However, the buzz soon died down, and thanks to the lack of developmen­t around it, word was that the film had been shelved.

However, the talk around Sejal Supari has found a new lease of life. Sources claim that the maker of the film has found a new leading lady for the movie — Huma Qureshi.

“Sejal Supari is very much happening, and the makers have now approached Huma for the same. She has liked the script, and the film will go on floors soon,” a source close to the actress revealed.

According to reports, Bhumi Pednekar was supposed to do the movie. The role’s that of a contract killer in the film, and given Huma’s body of work, one would think she’d be a good fit for this. As the Padmavati crisis escalates to national level, more reasonable voices from within the and outside the entertainm­ent industry can be heard questionin­g the very raison d’etre of the national uproar.

Shyam Benegal, who has faced furious backlash in his time for his cinema on socio- cultural equality, is baffled by the extent of the Padmavati uproar. “I haven’t seen the film, have you? Yet there are hordes of people objecting to its content. Does that make any sense? I can’t understand how the protest has spread across the nation, when hardly anyone has seen the film. I am sorry, the protests make no sense, unless we judge them against the political current political climate in the country,” he says. Shyam, whose films like Ankur, Nishant, and Manthan focused on the evils of the caste system, sees a pattern of vote- bank politics in the protests against Padmavati. “This is being done to consolidat­e the Rajput vote. Now, you must understand that the Rajput community is not one homogenise­d community across the country. The Rajputs of Rajasthan possess a different mindset and cultural inclinatio­n as compared with the Rajputs in other parts of India. And even those Rajputs in different regions outside Rajasthan are diverse in their outlook. By raking up the Padmavati controvers­y, the Karni Sena hopes to unite them over an utterly irrelevant crisis. Sadly their ploy seems to be working. If I am from a particular caste and you tell me my cultural heritage is threatened, I will naturally react against the threat,” he sighs.

Shyam, who helmed a committee to recommend reforms in the workings of the Central Board Of Film Certificat­ion ( CBFC), has strong words of censure for the board. “I must say the CBFC is behaving very strangely in the matter of Padmavati. If the film did not carry a disclaimer it could easily be corrected. Why send the film back? Again it seems very suspicious.”

The filmmaker urges protesters to get reasonable. “Wait for Padmavati to release and then pass your verdict. What is the point in commenting over a film whose content has not been exposed to the public?” — SKJ

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