After his critically acclaimed 'Harud' (Autumn), actor-director Aamir Bashir is currently working on his second film 'Winter', which is again set in Kashmir and is told through a woman's perspective.
Bashir, a familiar face on television and in Bollywood films like 'Split Wide Open', 'A Wednesday' and 'The Great Indian Butterfly', says his home state Kashmir was the obvious choice when it came to telling a story through his camera.
"It is early to talk about it as I am still writing but 'Winter' is colder and darker in a sense. The story was always going to be about Kashmir. I got this idea during a conversation that I had with a friend of mine. We were talking about the story of Odysseus and Penelope and how she manipulated and deflected the attention of suitors while awaiting the return of her husband.
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"We have taken this as an inspiration. In Penelope's case, the husband that she is waiting is the king but there is no such thing in our story as the dynamics are completely different," Bashir told PTI in an interview.
His feature debut 'Harud', about a young man and his family trying to come to terms with the disappearance of his older brother in conflict-torn Kashmir, created quite a buzz in international circles and was selected for Toronto Film Festival, BFI London Film festival and Mumbai Film festival. The film also won the National Film Award recently.
Bashir produced 'Harud' with cinematographer Shankar Raman through their Chasingtales production. Having struggled as an independent filmmaker with his debut film, Bashir says he is coming to his second project with a lot of baggage.
"I was not trained as a filmmaker so there were things that could have been done in a better way. I won't call them mistakes... It was more about ignorance and there was nobody to guide us. There are things that I felt were missing after watching the film. I will be more careful about things this time," he says.
