He's a serious actor with a serious issue on his mind -- Kashmir. Aamir Bashir, who believes he's still an outsider to the film industry, is heading to the Toronto 2010 film festival where his first directorial venture is to be screened.
He's a serious actor with a serious issue on his mindu00a0-- Kashmir. Aamir Bashir, who believes he's still an outsider to the film industry, is heading to the Toronto 2010 film festival where his first directorial venture is to be screened.
A docu-fiction, Aamir's film on the beautiful valley in turmoil is set against the background of autumn and according to the actor is a metaphor for the psychological decay that's been taking place for almost a decade now.
Cinematic taste
My film is an inside-out view on Kashmir. The cinematic language is almost the antithesis of your usual Bollywood film. It has no masala and no melodrama. The film is certainly not meant for someone who would want a thali on a trip abroad. It is a universal story that I've tried to tell through images. 
I compare cinema with literatureu00a0-- in literature you read lines and words and form images, whereas in cinema the images are presented and the audience has to construct the text. In my film, I leave the text or rather the interpretation, to the audience.
The boy from the valley
I left the valley in the summer of 1990 to study. So you can say that I've seen the upheaval closely, but also from the outside.
My parents still live there and I go back to see them as often as I can. So whenever I'm home, I see the tensions and problems in bits and pieces.
Most of my school friends who are doctors and engineers now, are abroad. But I hardly bump into those who have remained in the valleyu00a0-- they are almost unrecognisable. They've aged faster than the rest of us.
But it's human nature for you to retain pleasant memories and that is how I still see Kashmiru00a0-- through the paradise notion.
As a kid, I was always outdoors trekking, hiking, skiing, always in the nature's lap. What's sad is that even though the land's geography hasn't changed, I don't find the beauty anymore.
Praying for an end
It's a very politically sensitive place. The people there are very politically aware; they live and breathe the tensions. And not surprisingly, they are extremely suspicious of people with cameras; they are suspicious of how they are portrayed and whether their voice is really heard outside.
I had to negotiate on a daily basis with the people, the local police. It is very difficult to tap into the truth - you question around and you'll come across five to six different versions and each more absurd than the first one.
No one can ever explain why an incident/accident happened or who did it, but it happensu00a0-- press photographer gets shot, but with who's bulletu00a0-- the militant's or the soldier's?
You cannot imagine the anger in the region when a nine-year-old boy gets killed, but there's no violence in return. The people there are desperate for it all to end.
Who: Aamir Bashir
What: Talking about Kashmir, as an insider and an outsider
Where: At his Andheri flat
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