After Pahalgam terror attack, Hansal Mehta reflects on how Shahid, Omerta, Faraaz mirror today's reality

Stills from Omerta and Faraaz

Days after the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 innocent lives, filmmaker Hansal Mehta revisited films like Omerta and Faraaz and spoke how it reflected the current times. The filmmaker said that he was questioned when he made such films. He spoke about why such stories need to be told, heard and understood.

Hansal Mehta reflects on his films

Mehta took to his X handle (formerly Twitter) and penned a long post on the importance of such stories that is reflective of our times. "I hate having to say this.
But it needs to be said - again," he wrote.

"Shahid, Omertà, and Faraaz were not just films. They were urgent conversations about the times we live in. They spoke about state-sponsored terror, about radicalisation, about young minds being systematically brainwashed into violence."

"The events we depicted in Omertà and Faraaz - chillingly - find echoes today in what happened in Pahalgam. Omertà gave a raw, unsparing look into the sinister powers that enable and nurture such heinous acts. Faraaz - heartbreakingly - showed how violence targets innocence in the name of belief. Shahid was a plea for reform, for reclaiming our youth before they fall prey to hate," he wrote explaining the films briefly.

Hansal was questioned for making such films

The filmmaker also recalled being questioned for making the kind of films he did. "At the time, especially when Omertà and Faraaz released, I remember being targeted:
"Why this story?"
"Why this focus?"
"Are you targeting a community?"

No.
These stories are about a system - a machinery of hatred and fear - that cuts across faiths and borders.
A system that thrives on breeding division.
A system that brainwashes the young, glorifies the bloodshed, and normalises the terror.

It is easy, comfortable even, to indulge in moral grandstanding every time a difficult truth is told."

He further questioned, " Is it really woke to deny the disease? To look away because confronting it is hard? I believe it is cowardice. And it is dangerous. We must stop looking away. We must look this hatred - this sickness - straight in the eye. Only then can we even begin to heal."