Wednesday morning's bomb blast outside the Delhi High Court has once again highlighted India's lack of security, especially in high-alert zones.
Not surprisingly, first-time director Shubh Mukherjee is raising the same issue again in his movie Shakal Pe Mat Ja, which revolves around four characters who are detained on suspicion of terrorism.
Elaborating on his film, the debutant director says, "These four people try to prove their smartness by going to high-security places, planting a bomb and diffusing it after some time.
It's a film within the film in which they record the entire proceedings to prove their point to the political system: That if the parliament and the political class are not safe, how can they safeguard the interests of the public?"
Interestingly, Shubh very recently shot a portion of his film near the Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhavan. While he didn't have any problems during the filming, he had to deal with the consequences only much later.
As Shubh recalls, "After the news came out, I got calls from representatives of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha questioning my motives. And if that wasn't enough, I was even threatened on the telephone and sent threatening emails for shooting in high-security zones without required permissions."
The filmmaker maintains that his motive is simple. "Security is still a very vulnerable thing in our country, " he says, insisting that his intention is not to preach. "We're just informing people that there are still many loopholes. That's why time and again such terror attacks are taking places."
Never mind if Shubh was using satire to narrate his story, he was also pulled up while returning from Delhi to Mumbai with fake guns despite having the required paperwork.
The filmmaker has now given up on his wish of shooting a portion at the Delhi airport. "The question of getting clearance from the authorities doesn't arise after the Delhi High Court blasts, " he concedes.
So now he has no option but to get a set created for a couple of airport scenes, consequently delaying the release. "Earlier, we had planned to release the film on September 9, in keeping with the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.
But we were threatened not do. Due to the delay in shoot, we postponed it to September 23. But now, we have decided to release it on November 4, " says Shubh.
Summing up yesterday's attack outside the Delhi High Court, Shubh feels that India is too vulnerable to terror attacks. "We spend more money on the security of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru than our own citizens, " says the director.
Films that dared to cross the line...
Kabul Express
The team braved the unfriendly Taliban forces to shoot for Kabir Khan's Kabul Express in war-torn Afghanistan.
Khuda Gawah
Long before Kabir Khan ventured into Kabul, the late Mukul Anand had shot his magnum opus Khuda Gawah in Afghanistan.
LOC Kargil, Border
Previously, JP Dutta shot LOC Kargil at the locations of Operation Vijay. Earlier, he shot Border on the Rajasthan-Pakistan border.
Laqshya
Farhan Akhtar too filmed a major portion of his Laqshya with Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta close to the border in Kashmir.
Lamhaa
Director Rahul Dholakia shot his film Lamhaa in Kashmir last year.