Juhi, Manisha bond in Kashmir

Despite both of them being in the industry for 20 years, Onir’s I Am is Juhi Chawla and Manisha Koirala’s first film together. Describing the
experience as “pleasantly refreshing”, Chawla says, “Manisha is a very open- hearted person. In the past, we have
never gone beyond exchanging
pleasantries. We have never been on the same set at
the same time. So to come together as
friends on screen after all these years was
wonderful.” Chawla claims to love all of Koirala’s films from Saudagar (1991), Khamoshi The
Musical (1996) to Akele Hum Akele Tum
(1995). During the shoot, she adds that
they spent time walking around Srinagar
and having conversations over tea. She
says, “We mostly spoke about where our lives are now and what we plan to do in
the future. Soon after the film, Manisha
got married and I am very happy for her.” In Onir’s film, which consists of four short stories - Omar, Afia, Abhimanyu, and
Megha, Chawla features in two. She says,
“Each film is based on real-life stories with fear as the common theme.” On her character in Afia, Chawla says, “I play an affluent career woman who resists
the idea of going back to Kashmir (her
hometown) even for two days. She has
not made peace with her past and has
hurt and misgiving in her heart about
Kashmir and its people. She is unable to forgive them for what happened to her
family.” She adds, “As a child, she had to flee with her parents, live in refugee camps and
then at relatives’ houses. Their dignity was lost and her uncle was burnt alive by
people her family once considered
friends,” informs Chawla. For someone who hadn’t travelled to Kashmir before, Chawla says, “When I went for the shoot, my immediate
experience of Srinagar was that people
are trying to lead normal lives despite the
presence of armed forces all around the
city. People want to be free, they want
tourism back and yearn for peace.

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