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My Dangal girl

UZMA was annoyed with me when she learnt that a Kashmiri teenager, Zaira Wasim, has acted as young Geeta in Aamir Khan’s Dangal.



Brig Gurinder Singh (Retd)

UZMA was annoyed with me when she learnt that a Kashmiri teenager, Zaira Wasim,  has acted as young Geeta in Aamir Khan’s Dangal. ‘Agar aapne meri madad ki hoti to mein is Zaira se accha kam kar sakti’ (Had you helped me I could have done a better job than this Zaira), she told me on the phone. 

Uzma was one of the few girl students selected for the Army’s goodwill excursion to Mumbai and Pune in 2009 under the Sadbhawna project in Kashmir. These students witnessed the shooting of a movie in a studio in Mumbai and it is here that she thought she could act better than Zaira. When this group returned, Uzma was bitten by the acting bug. To top it, she thought only I could help her in her pursuit of getting a role in Hindi movies. I always tried to dissuade her from Bollywood ambitions by suggesting her to focus on becoming a doctor or a teacher as she was a brilliant student.

Uzma often called me to enquire if I had spoken to ‘someone’ in the film industry. To discourage her, I argued that there were no cinema halls running movies as all were burnt down long ago. She retorted, ‘We all see on DVDs.’ I again reasoned, ‘Your family will not allow you to go.’  ‘Woh bhi aapki zimmewari hai (that too is your responsibility), they will not say no to you,’ she put me in a bind. 

After I was posted out of Kashmir, Uzma finished her schooling and    joined college in Baramulla, but continued to nurture her Bollywood dreams. She often called me to check if I had contacted ‘someone’ in the film industry. Only to please her, I once told her that I had requested Shammi Kapoor to help as he enjoyed a huge following in the Valley. Uzma was crestfallen when the veteran actor died a few months later. I promised her that I will speak to ‘someone’ else, hoping that she will give up in due course.

Then Dangal happened, and Uzma accuses me of not trying enough. ‘Why didn’t you speak to Aamir Khan? I could have played Zaira’s role,’ she sobbed. ‘But Aamir needed a younger girl and you are now 20-21,’ I argued. ‘Had you tried earlier, Aamir could have made this movie five years ago, or I could have even played grownup Geeta’s role,’ Uzma retorted. ‘But Kashmiris are not happy with Zaira,’ I claimed. ‘Who cares? If I had done the role, I would not even have returned from Mumbai,’ she countered.

Dangal has been a record success. When sequels are being rolled out of ordinary movies, can Aamir not make ‘Dangal 2’ or ‘Dangal Returns’ with my Uzma in the lead role?

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