Indian director Kabir Khan is expressing his views on the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and the future of the country's entertainment industry.
“All of this is bizarre that after 20 years an organisation like the Taliban can come back,” says Khan, who started his cinematic journey a documentary on the country with Kabul Express (2006).
He adds, “It makes me remember one little incident from my documentary, where we were interviewing some of the Taliban members in 2001 post the 9/11 incident. And one senior Taliban member just looked straight into my camera, said, ‘You think we are gone, we will be back’. The confidence with which he said at that time sent chills down my spine. And now, when I remember that statement, it haunts me.”
Speaking of his Afghani friends, the director expressed his helplessness in responding to cry for help.
“One of my friends and actor Bashir has been forced to run away from his house and go underground after his place was ransacked by the Taliban,” reveals the 52-year-old.
Kabir went on to explain, “In the first avatar of Taliban in 1996 -2001, forget films, they did not even allow photography. The only photographers that were allowed to operate were passport photographers.”
“A lot of small scale films were being made. I don’t know whether they will be allowed to continue or whether anybody will have the courage to try and continue. Because everybody knows their opinions on cinema and music,” he says, adding, “I doubt that the film industry will be allowed to survive. The Taliban ideology will not allow them to continue.”
