The Taliban have declared the war in Afghanistan over and on Monday the group’s fighters were seen all over Kabul. On Sunday, they seized Kabul in just over a week and entered the presidential palace as President Ashraf Ghani fled from the country.
And this takes us back to the time when Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan had gone to the country to shoot movie Khuda Gawah. The 1992 epic drama, shot extensively in the country, was written and directed by Mukul S Anand and starred Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi in the lead roles. It is also one of the most watched Indian films in Afghanistan's history.
Paying tribute to the natives of war-torn country, Bachchan in one of his interviews with PTI said, "Afghans are very noble people. If they become your enemies then it will be a time-bound enmity. But if they become your friend they will give so much affection that you won't be able to bear it.”
“Najibullah, the former President of Afghanistan, was a great fan of Hindi films and he had urged Indian Government to arrange our visit to the country," Bachchan said in the media interaction.
"When we were discussing the script of Khuda Gawah, I said let us go to Afghanistan to shoot. We went to Mazar-e-Sharif to shoot the sequence of traditional Afghan sport of Buzkashi," the legendary actor had said. \
(In Buzkashi horse-mounted players try to place a goat or calf carcass in a goal.)
"The President provided us excellent security when the shooting was on. Fighter jets were keeping vigil in the sky and Army tanks were at the side of the sets. It just felt like a battle field," he said.
For the unversed, then-Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah, a fan of Bachchan, had provided security from the Afghan Air Force for the 18-day shooting of the film in 1991.
Khuda Gawah, meaning God is Witness, had lavish production values and was extensively shot in and around the cities of Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan as well as in Nepal and India.
The film was the second-highest-grossing Indian film of 1992.
