Daily Times

Kalki Koechlin actress expressed her views on her visit to Pakistan and working on the documentary Azmaish by film-maker Sabiha Sumar.

The actor spoke about how her views on the Pak-India issue were initially based around the friction between the two countries, but upon visiting Pakistan to work on her documentary Azmaish, which is collaboration with Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar, her perspective changed — something she was hoping for.

“I think it was my neutrality on the subject [that I chose the project]; I didn’t have a particularly strong standpoint on the whole India-Pakistan issue.”

“From my point of view, I accepted the project out of curiosity. I had never been to Pakistan and I only knew India and Pakistan in terms of conflicts,” she said. “I wanted to see another aspect, perhaps, a more human aspect.”

During her visit she noticed a lot of similarities between the neighboring countries and said that the the two things that unify Pakistan and India are cricket and Bollywood.

Speaking about her experience in Pakistan, Kalki said “A lot of things surprised me. One thing that I loved was their curiosity because there’s very little outside influence in Pakistan vis-a-vis India. The openness with which they met me was very surprising.”

She remarked that the documentary focuses on the everyday struggles of the people on both sides of the border

Cricket and Bollywood are the two things that unite India and Pakistan, she remarked. “Bollywood is huge in Pakistan. People recognized me because of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Even with India, a lot of us are unified because of movies. People of northeast India speak Hindi because of Bollywood.”