Filmmaker Apoorva Lakhia is currently gearing up for the release of his upcoming biopic ‘Haseena: The Queen of Mumbai’, based on Haseena Parkar's life. However, not many people know that the director was initially offered to make a biopic on Dawood Ibrahim but he found his sister Haseena Parkar's story more interesting.
Recalling his first meeting with dreaded lady ganglord, the director says, "Although I was offered to do Dawood’s biopic, in the course of my research, I felt Haseena Parkar’s story was far more interesting and hadn’t been tapped. I was expected to meet Haseena and her family at someone’s place in Malad at 7 pm. I was shooting Zanjeer at Film City at that time and reached the venue at 9 pm."
Kadir, who was always with her, told Apoorva, "Aapko maalum hai aapne kisko intezar karwaya hai?" The filmmaker went into the house and was made to wait two hours before could Haseena meet him. "I went into the house. Haseena was in the next room but she also made us wait for two hours. Meantime, I dozed off on the couch in my shorts because I was drained after the shoot. In the meeting, she didn’t talk much, people around her did. My writer Chintan Gandhi, I and she were the only people seated in the room while everyone else remained standing. She was hesitant when I told her that I wanted to make a movie about her life. But eventually, she agreed and also opened up with us in our subsequent meetings," Apoorva reminisces.
Starring Shradda Kapoor as Haseena and marking this as her first ever biopic, ‘Haseena: The Queen of Mumbai’ will hit the theatres on 22
nd September.
