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Bangladeshi teen to play Malala
A teenage girl from Bangladesh will be playing Malala Yousafzai in movie ‘Gul Makai’ by director Amjad Khan.
Published : 30 May 2013, 09:04 AM
Updated : 30 May 2013, 09:57 AM
Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani activist for education and girls' rights, has emerged as a global symbol of the struggle against the Taliban.
Filmmaker Amjad Khan finally found his Malala in Dhaka’s Fatima Sheikh, The Times of India reported on Thursday.
The identity of the movie’s lead role remained a secret for the last 40 days ever since Fatima took her screen test before the director.
Malala survived a shot in the head by Taliban gunmen on Oct 9 last year.
Critically wounded, she was flown to the UK for treatment.
The movie’s title ‘Gul Makai’ is a tribute to the pseudonym Malala had used to write her diary from her home Mingora, during the days of Taliban occupation in Swat valley in northwest of Pakistan.
Her journal accounts first appearance in BBC’s Urdu service in 2009, when she was 11.
The film’s director said there were two reasons for keeping Fatima’s casting a secret.
“One was that her parents were extremely reluctant to let her do this role, let alone expose her to the danger it involved and second was the work permit to shoot in India,” Khan told The Times of India.
Fatima secured her work permit ten days ago so the film is ready for shooting, he added.
The shoot of the proposed film will be held in India and Pakistan.
He said young new actor’s parents had to be convinced so they would let her play Malala on screen.
“Even now, the parents are insisting on not revealing the girl’s face till the second schedule of the film’s shoot is over.”
Khan said he acquired permission from Pakistan government to shoot the film in Islamabad and Karachi after three months of effort.
“I will be shooting what the Taliban activity is all about, how they train youngsters, all this is what I will shoot — I will keep Fatima on the sets so that she gets accustomed to all of us.
“She is just a kid, actually, she is still learning, so I need to make her comfortable first,” the director added.
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