Bollywod vs Hollywood: EXCLUSIVE: Kabir Khan on receiving death threats from Taliban during Kabul Express shoot in Afghanistan

Tuesday 24 August 2021

EXCLUSIVE: Kabir Khan on receiving death threats from Taliban during Kabul Express shoot in Afghanistan - "That was scary, to be honest"

Filmmaker Kabir Khan was well-known for his documentary films before he ventured into feature films with Kabul Express (2006) in which he narrated what he had witnessed during his time in Afghanistan. The film starred John Abraham and Arshad Warsi. Now, it is known that the Taliban is back in Afghanistan after 20 years. In a recent conversation with Bollywood Hungama, the director shared his experiences in Afghanistan and also talked about how he and his team received death threats during the filming of Kabul Express.

"That was scary, to be honest. I mean, when it happened, it definitely was; to get death threats from the Taliban. Basically, what happened is that we started filming. We were the first film from anywhere in the world to be filming in post-Taliban, Afghanistan. And, obviously, so we became this very exotic story for international media to report on, as Afghanistan coming back normal and a Bollywood film is being shot here. So BBC, CNN, and they all did short snippets and stories on us. And obviously, the Taliban sitting across the border did not like that picture going out that everything is getting back to normal because the Taliban had even banned any form of cinema and films and photography. So then they sent out death threats to us. We were told by the Indian Ambassador that five people actually have been sent out to get our unit. So we had to obviously stop filming. Because it's not, it's not a death threat from just one some underground outfit it is, at that point in time, one of the most dreaded terrorist organizations. But, then the Afghan people that have run government really, for them, they said, 'We will give you whatever protection you want.' But for them, they really wanted us to go on, they wanted us, they didn't want us to succumb to these death threats to do what the Taliban was trying to do, which basically scare us away from Afghanistan," Kabir Khan told Bollywood Hungama.

"I often said that if it was not that kind of support, and help that I got from the people of Afghanistan, my first film would not have happened. If my first one would not have happened, maybe I would not have been a filmmaker today. So I really owe it to the people of Afghanistan. These are the people who literally stood between the Taliban and us. I feel heartbroken when some of those very people today are trying to reach out to me and asking for help to get them out of Afghanistan because some of them have been very vocal critics of the Taliban. They have been famous, they're on YouTube, they're on social media, criticizing the Taliban. They have professed their love for India and Bollywood. Some of them are actors, and they are targets. One of our friend's houses has already been ransacked, and he's gone underground with his family. We are, of course, trying to do whatever we can, it's not easy. But it's heartbreaking to see them get into this position after two decades," he added.