Bharati Dubey

Manisha Koirala will be soon be portraying a real-life character in Ujjal Chattopadhyay's film Escape From Taliban.

The film is based on a true life story of Sushmita Bandopadhyay, the woman who married Afghani national Jaanbaaz Khan. Blinded by love, Sushmita followed Khan to Sarana, a small town about 18 hours away from Kabul, Afghanistan, only to find hatred and disrespect towards women in the country.

Sushmita was then forced to convert to Islam. The film deals with Sushmita's struggle and her final escape, after six years in the country, from the restrictive Taliban regime.

For now, the town of Sarana has been recreated at the helipad in Filmcity. Jaanbaaz Khan's home in Sarana has four families living together. Art director Bijon Dasgupta's recreation of the mud houses of Afghanistan look very authentic.

Past a huge 10-foot gate is Sushmita's house. Manisha Koirala is screaming "Stop it!" (in English), and rushes into a room where an Afghani woman is being tortured. Wearing a biscuit-coloured salwaar-kameez and a tattoo on her forehead, Manisha seems completely involved with the film and her character.

Every shot merits a careful scan from Manisha. If she doesn't find it up to the mark, she requests the director for one more take till she is completely satisfied.

The lights need to be changed from their present position. Break time. Manisha seems a little relaxed and in the mood for conversation. What attracted her to playing a real-life character? Says Manisha, "The very fact that it is a true story attracted me. Apart from the fact that it is very topical, it is an incredibly shocking story."

Did she need to prepare for her role as Sushmita Bandopadhyay? "I had about 15 to16 meetings with Sushmita before the film went on the floor to know more about her experience in Afghanistan, which we have tried to incorporate in the film," explains Manisha.

Of late, Manisha seems to have trained her focus on woman-oriented films and has signed about five more films this year. Not that we have seen much of her in the recent past. "Yah, I go through these phases," she muses. "Besides, I have reached the point where I only want to take on challenging roles. Otherwise I lose interest and end up doing mediocre work."

Director Ujjal Chattopadhyay would rather let his film talk than talk to anyone about it. A bit of cajoling later gets him to talk about Escape From Taliban during lunch break. A serious filmmaker, Chattopadhyay has directed two award-winning films like Gondi and Kalratri (both were in Bengali).

That this is a burning topical issue was one of the primary reasons that attracted him into making this film, admits Chattopadhyay: "We had acquired the rights of the book long before the September 11 terror attacks in the US. We have been working on the script since March 2001."

Chattopadhyay says he has taken some cinematic liberties with the film, "Film is a medium where one can take cinematic liberties. There is not much drama in the book so I had to work really hard on the screenplay with Sushmita Bandhopadhya's consent."

Ashok Khemka, a steel trader, admits he is enjoying is job as a first-time producer: "I learning the ropes of being a film producer and have had no problems so far." But has he found takers for a film which is so topical? "Not yet, I am in no hurry. Let me finish shooting the film. And then we will see what happens."

The film is in its last schedule and, in most probability, will be released around April or May 2002.