Bollywood to make film on Pakistani social media star Qandeel Baloch

After getting a Pakistani blockbuster serial made and an internationally admired book written in her honour, the late Qandeel Baloch is now set to get her story told on the big screen through the lens of an Indian screenwriter and director, Alankrita Shrivasta.

Backed by the producers Vikas Sharma and Sunny Khanna, the film will be directed by the woman behind the Netflix series ‘Bombay Begums’ and the film ‘Lipstick Under My Burqa’, with all three having attained legal rights to the book, ‘The Sensational Life and Death of Qandeel Baloch’.

In a conversation with Variety, the director said that the stimulus has been the shock which she received on the death of Baloch’s murder in the name of honour back in 2016. Here’s how Alankrita’s statement goes:

“It was a heinous honor killing. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I started watching Qandeel’s videos repeatedly, and I was fascinated. She was so charming and full of life. A poor girl from a small village, who worked her way up to being provocatively famous. She was just 26 when she was killed. And ironically, it’s only after her death that she has been reclaimed as a feminist.”

Indian screenwriter and director, Alankrita Shrivasta

No other details regarding the film have been given yet, except that Qandeel Baloch’s life-story always fascinates Alankrita Shrivasta and inclines her to go for a highly creative project dealt with utmost sensitivity, the result of which the entire subcontinent will see soon.

In Pakistan, where Baloch was murdered by her own brother, it was Saba Qamar who essayed her character in a serial titled ‘Baaghi’, which also shed light upon the difficult yet notorious life of Qandeel Baloch, after which ‘The Sensational Life and Death of Qandeel Baloch’ was also written. This Indian project, which is in its very initial stages, will be the third tribute to the social media star.