Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is planning to visit Iraq to meet Muntazer al-Zaidi, the journalist who rose to fame after flinging a shoe at the then US president, George W. Bush at a press conference in 2008.
Bhatt is producing a play based on Muntazer titled The Last Salute. He will be accompanied by director, Arvind Gaur and actor, Imran Zahid who plays the lead role in the play.
“We haven’t met him, we just got information from his book and media reports. So it was important for us to meet him in person, to get first-hand information about him and people there,” said Bhatt.
The noted filmmaker feels that meeting the journalist will help the production team to make the play more realistic.
Although Muntazer advised Bhatt not to travel to Iraq because of security reasons, Bhatt says: “…but we will surely go, unless government of Iraq says no. I don’t feel unsafe.”
The play will open in New Delhi on May 14 this year.
