Zee News India reported famous Indian director Mahesh Bhatt as saying: “There is an uncertainty over the staging of ‘Daddy’ in Pakistan. One of our theatre groups has not been given visa to travel to Karachi for the festival. When I asked the host they said some bureaucratic procedure has resulted into this problem.”
This gave rise to rumours that Mahesh Bhatt was not sure he would go ahead with staging his play ‘Daddy’ at Napa’s International Theatre Festival in Karachi, Pakistan.
“My daughter and me are supposed to travel to Karachi for our play but if one of our own group from our country can’t go, then we will also opt out. It is either all of us or no one,” he added.
However, festival director Zain Ahmed said that nothing had been confirmed, and that while some visas had been delayed, Napa was in touch with authorities to expedite the process.
“No information is final and visas are in process,” said Ahmed.
Mahesh Bhatt is meant to travel to Pakistan with his daughter Pooja Bhatt to stage ‘Daddy,’ a theatrical adaptation of Mahesh Bhatt’s classic film of the same name which is a sensitive story of role reversals in a fairy tale of a princess and her father.