When he was working on documentaries, filmmaker Kabir Khan spent a lot of time in Afghanistan. However, when he went to the country to film his first Bollywood film, Kabul Express (2006), he received a death threat from the Taliban.
In a recent interview with Mashable’s The Bombay Journey, Kabir described how he and his crew were told of a death threat 14 days into shooting Kabul Express. “The Indian ambassador called us and asked, ‘Kya Kar Rahe ho?'” he said. (What are you doing?) We told him we were making a film. So he told us to come to his office once we were finished. We wrapped up the shoot that day and proceeded to see him. When we arrived, there was an Indian ambassador and an Indian military attache. They informed us that the American, Afghan, and our intelligence services had informed them of a genuine death threat against you, your actors, and your film crew. A unit from Pakistan has sent five people to attack your unit. ‘Khoon sook Gaya ye sun kar (I went numb when I heard this).”
Kabir Khan first returned the film’s lead actors, John Abraham and Arshad Warsi, to Bombay and locked his film’s unit in a secure hotel. While he was considering returning to India because he couldn’t risk endangering his team’s lives, the Afghans stepped up. This angered many in Afghanistan, who wondered how the Taliban could keep up with the barrage of gunfire. “The Afghan security minister stepped in and stated that if you returned to India tomorrow, it would be our failure,” the filmmaker remembered.
Meanwhile, Kabir received a phone call from the film’s producer, Aditya Chopra, who assured him that the production of his debut Bollywood film would continue even if he returned to India. “He added that in the history of Yash Raj, no film has ever been canceled in the middle of production, and yours will not be the first,” Kabir said.
When Kabir Khan opted to remain, the Afghans went to great lengths to protect the safety of the Kabul Express crew. Arrived on our doorstep were 60 armed commandos, outfitted to Afghan standards. ” Approximately 40 to 45 SUVs will join us in the morning for our trip north. Every window we passed had a gun coming out of it, which is how we got to our setups. Only I knew where we were filming, and the others used to follow me.
Kabul Express, which was released in 2006, was loosely based on Kabir and his friend Rajan Kapoor’s experiences in Afghanistan.
Also Read: During his filmmaking training, Kabir Khan studied Shah Rukh Khan’s notes and danced with Gauri Khan in college: ‘She is a wonderful dancer.’
