Mumbai, July 07

By Our Bollywood Reporter Ms Divya Chawla

When Meera kissed Ashmit Patel in the name of Indo-Pak friendship, little did she knew, she was actually kissing the biggest controversy of her life. Nazar is out and so is its verdict.

The Bhatt film is a complete dud and in the hindsight it has done more damage to Meera's acting prospects in Paksitan than helping her.

But poor Meera didn't lose heart and took pride in the fact that Pakistan government has decided to commemorate her effort by bestowing Ambassador of Peace award on her.

The D-day came on April 30th and as soon as Meera was preparing to receive the peace award, Pakistani film actor Mustafa Qureshi walked out saying that she did not deserve the award because her acting in an Indian film had in no way helped resolve disputes between India and Pakistan.

Click here to see Nazar Movie Photo Gallery

Qureshi joined the country's leading film personalities in the protest against the Film Censor Board chairman Ziauddin for adopting "favouritism" while deciding the awardees.

As a mark of protest, two leading film personalities - Amjad Farzind, the chairman of the Film Producers Association, and actor Shaan - announced to return their awards demanding sacking of Ziauddin for holding the "ill-planned" event.

Terming the ceremony as "insulting", Farzind said that the film industry had not waited four years to witness the "mismanagement and nepotism" of Ziauddin. He also appealed to the media to urge the government not to show the awards ceremony on international channels.

Another Pakistani actress Sana Nawaz, also pitched in to the protest by alleging that Meera's death threats, while she was shooting for the film, were all hogwash and self-created.

"I agree the Hindi film industry may be far bolder than its counterpart in Pakistan, but that's no reason to believe Meera's allegations that she received death threats for deciding to act in Nazar. It was all self-created publicity and everybody knows the reason why she did it," says Sana, who has been cast opposite Sunny Deol in Ammtoje Mann's Kaafila-The Mission.

Deeply hurt by the malicious onslaught, Meera resorted to the extreme step and shifted her base to Dubai, where she has bought herself an apartment and also applied for a residential permit.

Says incensed Meera, “I’m extremely hurt and upset by the behaviour of my colleagues in the Pakistani film industry. The public loves me but it’s a section of the film fraternity that is jealous of my success. They are dogmatic people who are intolerant of what I represent.

Click here to see Kasak Movie Photo Gallery

"It was an extremely prestigious award given by the Government of Pakistan, but they said I didn’t deserve it. They created such a hullabaloo while I was on stage. The next day, they called a press conference and returned their awards.”

But now what, has she severed off her ties with Pakistan?

“I would rather work in Indian films and live in Dubai. And if the offers are really great, I will do Pak commercials and films," says the rebellious star.

Meera is currently working in Afzal Ahmed’s 'Umrao Jaan Aada' and Lucky Ali’s 'Kasak'.