Her identity had been kept a secret for the last 40 days, ever since he did her look test and screening. “But now, we can tell you that her name is Fatima Sheikh, and she’s from Dhaka,” said Amjad Khan told journalists, reports The Times of India.
He said Fatema is a Bangladeshi citizen and she needs a work permit to shoot in India. “Fatima ke parents ko manane mein bahut waqt lag gaya,” says Amjad, adding, “Abhi bhi, they’ve said no to revealing her face till the second schedule of the film’s shoot is over.”
“There were two reasons for all this secrecy. One was that her parents were extremely reluctant to let her do this role, let alone expose her to the danger it involved, second was the work permit,” he said.
Ten days ago, Fatima’s work permit was in place, and the film’s ready to roll now. Amjad Khan is also excited about getting permission to shoot in Islamabad and Karachi.
“It took me three months, and finally, the Pakistan government gave me the permission to shoot,” says Amjad.
So now, the report says, he will also schedule a Pakistan shoot post his London schedule, around November. But for now, it is the first schedule in MP, which got delayed, and will not start on June 2 that he is gearing up for.
“This is a difficult one, I’ll be shooting what the Taliban activity is all about, how they train youngsters, all this is what I will shoot – I will keep Fatima on the sets so that she gets accustomed to all of us. She is just a kid, actually. Padh rahi hai, so I need to make her comfortable first,” says Amjad.