Hassan Khan, a young actor from the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) remained in headlines for quite a while after he revealed his upcoming project playing late Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The hype created on social media after Hassan posted a picture twinning to Sushant and disclosed he has played the late Indian actor in his upcoming project ‘SU•SHAANT’ produced by an Indian producer Raj Gupta which will be released at Amazon Prime.
There came a twist in the story after Amazon Prime refused to have done any such project with Hassan based on Sushant’s life. The statement from Amazon Prime generated immense backlash on Hassan as people blamed him for ‘Publicity Stunt’.
Read: Pakistani actor to play Sushant Singh in Amazon Prime’s project
Following immense criticism for Hassan on different social media platforms, behtareen.pk reached out to the actor to know his side of the story. Upon being asked, Hassan revealed that a short documentary based on Sushant’s life was all set to release at Amazon Prime, as per said by project’s Indian producer, but due to a huge backlash from India and Sushant’s family, the online video portal took a step back.
“I was told by Gupta that this project would release on Amazon Prime and everything was going alright,” said Hassan. “Actually, a friend of mine made a side pose picture of me and Sushant which I really liked and posted it on Instagram late night. When I woke up the next morning, a huge number of people had already dropped negative comments on it, some of them were really surprised over it and few of them blamed me for ‘Publicity Stunt’,” he shared.
“A lot of Indian websites reported against me. Meanwhile, I read an article on a local website which quoted Amazon Prime refusing to have done any such project with me and it really made me shocked for a while,
“Following all the situation, I took my phone and posted some behind the scenes pictures from the project and also the poster on my Instagram to let people know that such a project had already been shot,” he maintained.
Hassan disclosed that he received negative comments from a huge number of Indians in his inbox. He also revealed that late Sushant’s family also approached him and threatened him for doing any project related to the departed soul.
“I can’t tell you how much negative comments I received. A number of Indians came to me personally to blame me for ‘Publicity Stunt’. And you won’t believe, my Instagram account got blocked twice and I am sure it happened after a lot of people reported it. Tell me, how could I even think of gaining fame by using a person’s name who is no more?” he grieved.
“Sushant’s family texted me personally and threatened to file a case against me for doing any project related to Sushant. I told them to better contact the producer who is also an Indian,” he reiterated.
Talking about ‘SU•SHAANT’, Hassan said it’s a short documentary of 18 to 20 minutes which covers the life of Sushant and the tragedy that happened to him. “It’s a short documentary directed by a Pakistani Director who recommended me for the role. I am playing the character of Sushant – named ‘Sushi’ in the documentary,” said Hassan.
“The script was very well written and characters were given a different name from the real-life as the producer knew it would create problems at the time of release. Like, the script named Rhea Chakraborty who was in a relationship with Sushant as ‘Priya’,” he marked.
According to Hassan, the Indian producer is confident to release the short documentary within 15 to 20 days despite all the criticism it had faced. “As of now, the short documentary is all to release on an online Indian platform, this is what I am told by the producer,” he shared.
On the other hand, Hassan also talked about his journey and future endeavors. “Basically, I am a theatre artist and toured several countries through NAPA and performed arts with Germans, Indians, and other nationals. I also worked with MD Productions for different projects and a drama serial is in pipeline after ‘Soteli Mamta’. Earlier, I used to play cricket from PIA but couldn’t continue with the sport and switched to acting,” he highlighted.
The actor also gave an opinion on the current trend of web-series and said it has given opportunities to so many young actors. “Web-series is a good platform for youngsters to showcase their talent. Pakistan has also made ‘Churails’, first-ever Pakistani web-series which gained immense praise. I think more such projects should be made in the country,” he concluded.
Author: M Muzamil Asif