Zarina Wahab plays the lead in short film Kashmiriyat

Veteran actor Zarina Wahab returns to the screen as the female protagonist in the upcoming short film, Kashmiriyat. She states that the intense storyline made her take up the project while adding that it was quite taxing for her to shoot the film.

"Despite decades of playing so many roles, this one was taxing and extremely indulgent, especially for the climax! I can definitely say that I had seen the film in my head even before it was shot. Mainly because of the rightly dramatised narration by the director. And then during the shoot, I was impacted right till the last minute. Honestly, it has still stayed with me," she said.

The story of the film revolves around a mother-son relationship. The director of the film, Divyansh Pandit, expressed his emotional attachment to the story. "Being a Kashmiri, I always wanted to tell its story and I'm finally telling one through my medium. The voices that are driven by agenda and a major section of the media have always portrayed a typical image of Kashmir, its people and the Indian Army, which is utter nonsense," said Divyansh.

He further claimed, "In our short film, we have shown how the vicious cycle in the Valley that is made to look organic is actually planned. Kashmir as a subject is extremely complex. Since the world is fed only a one-sided narrative and nobody puts in an effort to know the reality behind its complexity, I, through my short film, have tried to put out a perspective that has never been portrayed in the mainstream."

Along with Zarina, the film also features Naveen Pandit, Anshul Trivedi, Abhay Bhargava and Rohit Sagar Girdhar.

Produced by Ashutosh Pandit, the film will be released on YouTube on August 12.