Actor Vidya Balan has pulled out of a biopic on the poet Kamala Das, Aami, directed by Kamal. Media reports suggest that several Hindutva outfits, including Shiv Sena, were opposed to Vidya Balan playing the role of the controversial figure
Director Kamal alleged that Balan’s opting out could be linked to his own trouble with the Saffron brigade.
Meanwhile, a source close to the Bollywood actress told a daily that Balan opted out of Aami for she and the director, Kamal, had divergent approaches to the process.
It was earlier reported that Balan will play Kamala Das, a writer well known for her controversial and bold work and later embraced Islam some time before her death in 2009. She also changed her name to Kamala Surayya. Kamala Das’. Das’s conversion to Islam also kicked up a controversy and the writer, well known for her honest expression of female sexuality, faced strong opposition from the right-wing for her decision.
Director Kamal, who was the director of IFFK, has been facing Sangh Parivar’s hate campaign after he had objected to cops entering theaters to round up people who had not stood up during the national anthem.
He was even asked by the BJP State general secretary to leave the country if he was uncomfortable in India. The BJP leader even iterated that director Kamaluddin Muhammed, who called Narendra Modi as a man-eater, has link with extreme Islamist organisation and called him a terrorist.
