Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: the Bollywood Movie?

by Jarrett Martineau | June 9, 2009 at 01:41 pm

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The horrific terrorist attacks that rocked Mumbai, India last November are about to receive the dubious 'honor' of being transformed into a Bollywood movie.

Total Ten aims to tell the "true story" of the ten men alleged to have attacked Mumbai and will focus on the life of Azam Amir Kasab — the 21-year-old Pakistani man who is said to have been "the sole terrorist caught alive" after the attacks.

Kasab is currently charged with 166 counts of murder and many are worried that a Bollywood version of the events could jeopardize the legal proceedings and cause prejudice in the case.

The filmmakers have dismissed such claims and hope to release the film "as soon as possible".

According to reports, Total Ten is not the only big screen adaptation in the works — it is "one of at least 17 similar films that are in production".

In the first week after the Mumbai attacks, as many as "18 related film titles were registered with the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association".

Bollywood has a record of spinning dubious fiction out of real-life events, but the first film to be based on the Mumbai terror atrocity is poised to test the limits.

The producers of Total Ten say that their film tells the true story of Azam Amir Kasab, 21, the Pakistani national alleged to be the sole terrorist caught alive during the attacks in November.

However, there are concerns that the low-budget film risks prejudicing Mr Kasab’s trial — in which he has pleaded not guilty — not least because it ends with him being sentenced to death and hanged.

Mr Kasab is accused of 166 counts of murder and waging war against India. Abbas Kazmi, his lawyer and a terror case veteran, said that Total Ten (the title refers to the ten terrorists who allegedly attacked Mumbai) risks derailing one of the highest-profile trials ever held in the country. “Any depiction of the attacks would jeopardise the proceedings,” he said.