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No Question Of Pakistan Taking Upcoming 'Neerja' Film Badly: Shabana Azmi

No Question Of Pakistan Taking Upcoming 'Neerja' Film Badly: Shabana Azmi
Undated portrait of Neerja Mishra, (Neerja Bhanot), the Pan Am flight attendant and senior flight purser killed in the Karachi hijacking, that has been hailed as âheroine of the hijackâ in Indian newspapers shown Sept. 9, 1986. She reportedly warned the cockpit crew of the gunmen, allowing them to escape and strand the jet on the tarmac. She died on Friday, September 5, 1986, two days before her 23rd birthday. (AP Photo)
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Undated portrait of Neerja Mishra, (Neerja Bhanot), the Pan Am flight attendant and senior flight purser killed in the Karachi hijacking, that has been hailed as âheroine of the hijackâ in Indian newspapers shown Sept. 9, 1986. She reportedly warned the cockpit crew of the gunmen, allowing them to escape and strand the jet on the tarmac. She died on Friday, September 5, 1986, two days before her 23rd birthday. (AP Photo)

MUMBAI -- Veteran actress Shabana Azmi saw no reason for Pakistan to have any problem with an upcoming film on brave air hostess Neerja Bhanot, who sacrificed her life while saving passengers of a hijacked aircraft in the neighbouring country nearly 30 years ago.

The Sonam Kapoor-starrer "Neerja" is a biopic on the 23-year-old flight attendant from Chandigarh who saved 360 lives on a Pan Am flight, when it was hijacked by terrorists in Karachi in 1986.

Neerja was posthumously conferred the Ashoka Chakra, the country's highest peacetime gallantry award. She was also honoured by Pakistan and US Governments for her bravery.

"It's a rare occasion when a person is honoured by the US, India and Pakistan. There is no question of Pakistan taking it (the film) badly," said Shabana, who plays Neerja's mother in the film, whose trailer was launched here today.

The veteran actress was asked by reporters whether Pakistan would take objection to the film, directed by Ram Madhavani.

At this point, one of Neerja's brothers who was present at the trailer launch interrupted, saying, "Pakistan was the first one to give an award (to her for bravery)."

"The film is about mother-daughter relationship. It's a family film," Madhavani said.

The director hoped the film will be well-received by the audience. "We hope we have done justice to what happened to those people who were there in the flight...what happened on that day," he added.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.