New Delhi: Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam Dhar are playing spouses facing off in a legal battle in their upcoming film, HAQ. Dhar plays Shazia Bano—a character based on Shah Bano, who filed a maintenance case against her husband Ahmad Khan in 1978, and won. Shah Bano’s fight became a milestone in Indian Muslim women’s fight for equal rights. Hashmi plays Abbas, based on Ahmad Khan, who was an affluent advocate in Indore.
The film’s teaser was released Tuesday, and both Hashmi and Dhar have shared it on Instagram. It is based on the book, Bano: Bharat ki Beti, written by former journalist Jigna Vora.
The video shows glimpses of the couple’s early days of marriage before it swiftly disintegrates. “If you were a true Muslim, and a true and faithful wife, you would never have said such things,” says Abbas. It follows a series of scenes where Shazia Bano is confronting local religious authorities before landing up in court. The film is set to release on 7 November.
Hashmi shared the poster on Instagram Monday, which showed Dhar’s character walking toward the Supreme Court. “Kaun dilaega haq, kaum ya kanoon? (Who will deliver justice, community or law?)” read a line in red.
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‘An Indian Muslim woman’
The film is directed by Suparn S Varma, who earlier produced the courtroom drama, Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai (2023), on the five-year legal battle of a minor rape victim against Asaram Bapu. He is also one of the directors of the second season of The Family Man.
The film has been produced by Junglee Pictures, in association with Insomnia Films and Baweja Studios.
“I am not just a Muslim woman, but an Indian Muslim woman, born and brought up in this soil. The law must look at me in the same way it does other Indian women,” says Shazia Bano in the teaser.
While Shah Bano was in her 60s when Khan divorced her and refused to pay the Rs 200 maintenance, Shazia Bano is shown as a young woman.
In the Shah Bano case, the bench headed by Chief Justice YV Chandrachud invoked a provision in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, to order maintenance compensation to the divorced Muslim woman.
This case also caused the Rajiv Gandhi government to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, which diluted the judgment of the Supreme Court. It directed that divorced Muslim women can receive alimony from their former husbands for only 90 days after the divorce.
In recent years, BJP leaders have targeted the Congress for its stance on the case.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)