NEW DELHI (dpa): Right-wing Hindu activists on Friday disrupted the shooting of a film by Hollywood director Kathryn Bigelow's recreating Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout in the Indian city Chandigarh, news reports said. Bigelow is making a movie on the US Navy Seals who tracked and killed the al-Qaeda leader in the Pakistani city of Abbotabad. She has chosen to set her movie in Chandigarh, capital of the northern Indian state of Punjab, IANS news agency reported. The Oscar-winning director's crew was forced to cancel shooting and move cameras after demonstrations by activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) in Manimajra town on the outskirts off Chandigarh The VHP activists disrupted the shooting and removed Pakistani flags put up to recreate streets in Abbotabad where the Navy Seals killed bin Laden on May 2, 2011. “They are showing Chandigarh as Pakistan. This is not acceptable in any terms. Why should a place in India be converted to look like Pakistan? We will never allow Pakistan flags flying at places in the city,” Vijay Singh Bhardwaj, a leader of the Hindu organization, was quoted as saying. Activists dispersed after local police officer Rajesh Shukla assured them that Pakistani flags would not be permitted at the shooting locations. Bigelow later said they would not be using the flags, the report said. South Asian neighbors India and Pakistan have a history of bitter relations and have fought three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947. Oscar winner Bigelow's crew has been shooting in the area since Wednesday. The feel of a Pakistani town was created in Manimajra and a busy market area in Chandigarh with Urdu signboards. “Given the security environment in Pakistan and the strained US-Pakistan relations, too many risks were involved in shooting the film inside that country,” IANS quoted a crew member as saying. Bigelow's film Zero Dark Thirty or ZD30 is expected to be released by the end of the year, the reports said. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/iEiSi Tags: bin Laden Movie, Hindus protest, India Section: Latest News
