Actress Mehwish Hayat confirmed a biopic on Benazir Bhutto in her latest interview with BBC Urdu last week. Hayat’s confirmation has endorsed the speculations that were rife for quite a long time on the much-awaited biopic.
Hayat is tenacious to ceaselessly channel Benazir Bhutto on the cinema screen. Several times, she is pictured reading Bhutto’s biography ‘Daughter of East’, signaling her determination towards her character.
Shaheed Benazir Bhutto as the Prime Minister of Pakistan had visited the war zone in Bosnia to show solidarity with the Bosnian Muslims in 1994. She did not back off despite Serbs making attacks to halt the visit by spreading terror. 💙 @BakhtawarBZ #SMBB💔 pic.twitter.com/qxxxdbu6Q0
— Kashif Sahito (@Kashif_Sahito__) October 25, 2019
Hayat is excited to play Benazir Bhutto on screen. Ever since signing off the movie, Hayat has been elaborating on her preparations underway to play iconic Benazir Bhutto. Many times, Hayat has declared her inspiration and an ideal.
Hayat revealed that the biopic is “being written right now, it’ll take some time, but I cannot wait to play [Benazir Bhutto]. I’ve been reading up about her and the more I read, the more I get inspired… The world needs to see her story.”
Read more: Will Mehwish Hayat play Benazir Bhutto in next project?
“This is the story of a hero. Benazir Bhutto is a hero to me and I love that woman. Her story is so inspirational to me. This generation and the generations ahead must see her contributions, her struggles, and her progress. She was the first woman [to be] Prime Minister.”
She went on to talk about portraying Bhutto, claiming the role to be a “complicated” and “difficult” one, calling the biopic itself, “a huge subject and a very complicated one.”
"This is the story of a hero. #BenazirBhutto is a hero to me and I love that woman," added the actor. #MehwishHayat #PakistaniFilms
More: https://t.co/NcLwg7lH3N pic.twitter.com/BwrqTVOWP4
— Images (@dawn_images) October 28, 2019
Mehwish Hayat’s fondness of Benazir Bhutto
The news of a biopic on Benazir Bhutto first floated the internet after Mehwish Hayat dedicated an Instagram post to the deceased leader on her 65th birthday. Mehwish Hayat has called Benazir Bhutto an inspiration for distressed and aspiring women who lack empowerment to challenge their detractors.
“I am privileged to have been allowed to research and learn more about her life and sitting here I can only reflect on so much more that could have been had she not lost her life so tragically.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkShLv1Db4A/?utm_source=ig_embed
“The sign of a true leader is the legacy they leave behind and the reverence with which the people remember her irrespective of party allegiances,” the starlet further wrote. “She was a truly remarkable woman and I look forward to giving life to her story soon.”
Benazir Bhutto: Epitome of Resilience
Benazir Bhutto, the first Muslim woman Prime Minister, was a courageous leader of Pakistan People’s Party, who twice acquired premiership. She was the daughter of Pakistan’s revolutionary leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and is the mother of a young politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. She is revered for leading an arduous political struggle against her opponents.
Even her arch-rivals remember her as the ‘Iron Lady of Pakistan’. She rose to the highest public office of premiership at a time when the idea of a woman holding an authoritative position or lead a country was alien in a male-dominated society. She is credited for breaking the stereotypes when conservatism had tightly gripped Pakistan. Bhutto propelled in a fight against the military, became the torch-bearer of women empowerment in Pakistan.
Read more: International Women’s Day: GVS pays tribute to Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto suffered huge losses in her personal life from losing her father and brother, and her second brother killed by terrorists during her premiership. She faced strict challenges from conservative Mullahs who had even resorted to acquiring Fatwas from clerics in Saudi Arabia over a woman leadership in Pakistan.
Benazir faced constant character assassination from opposition political parties, the PML-N leadership smeared her by calling her a ‘yellow’ taxi suggesting she had loose morals.
She even faced strong opposition from the provincial government in Punjab throughout her government. Unfortunately, owing to extreme internal and external pressures, her premiership was laden with challenges from political opponents, little economic and social progress was made in her rule.