Chandigarh will become Osama Bin Laden’s Abottabad in the upcoming movie Zero Dark Thirty directed by Hollywood director Kathryn Bigelow
To give the feel of a Pakistani town, the shops have signboards written in Urdu, the language commonly used in Pakistan, while three-wheeler auto-rickshaws and other vehicles too have got a brightly coloured layer of paint and Pakistani registration numbers.
A local hardware shop, Ramgarhia Hardware store has been renamed ‘Shahzad Hardware and Paint Store’ in Urdu. An internet café and a phone call centre have also been given Pakistani names for the shots.
“While the supporting actors in the backdrop are mostly hired locally or from Delhi, their clothes and appearance has been made to match with life in Pakistan,†a member who accompanied the unit from Delhi, told IANS here.
“Given the security environment in Pakistan and the strained US-Pakistan relations, too many risks were involved in shooting the film inside that country.”
Incidentally, the shooting for the film began here just days after the Abbottabad ‘safe house’ was demolished by the authorities in Pakistan earlier this week.
Police sources here said the Hollywood film unit, which is taking the help of production companies in Chandigarh and Delhi, is expected to shoot in the area for a week.
The film is expected to be released at the end of this year.