A rare Bollywood debut

Saudi Arabian journalist and filmmaker Sameera Aziz is making history with her maiden Bollywood venture, ‘Reem’. She shares about her desire to depict the undiscovered aspects of her country and the present-day Saudi woman in her film

Journalist Sameera Aziz is set to become the first female Saudi Arabian filmmaker in Bollywood. She wears many hats as a director, writer, radio presenter, novelist, speaker, social worker and activist, apart from that of a journalist.

Her movie ‘Reem’ is being made under the banner of her own Saudi production house in Bollywood – the first of its kind – ‘Sana Solkar Production’. Sameera wants the world to know about her country, and is currently in India working on the pre-production of ‘Reem’.

Speaking about her movie she says, “It is based on a true story written by me. This is a story of a Saudi girl, Reem; whose real mother is an Indian woman. The film is an entertaining family drama with the exposure of the modern day Saudi culture and lifestyle. The lively Indian youth and their adventures will add spice to the film.”

The reason behind writing and directing such a story, Sameera says, is that the animation film is based on a person’s imagination. “I am making ‘Reem’ with the mission of peace and love, and anyone who is a promoter of the virtues will definitely support me and enjoy this film. I wish to be a bridge between Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world, and I aim to enter the Bollywood industry with a powerful story,” shares Sameera.

Further, she adds that her wish is to bring out the original life of people of Saudi, who according to her are confident, humble and highly educated. “They are now socialised. We are not camel riders anymore,” she states.

Sameera has studied and learnt filmmaking from Hollywood directors and has already assisted many directors of Saudi movies and plays such as ‘Lamar’ and ‘Hayath’ to name a few. She has been a journalist for 15 years.

Her Hindi film ‘Reem’ will be dubbed in Arabic and English languages and will be released worldwide. “The script and storyline are very powerful and communicative. The expected heroine for the main role is Wiam Dahmani, a Moroccan actress from UAE.

Background music will be created by Sanjoy Chowdhary. The creative team of my production house is very experienced, and hardworking from the Bollywood film industry. We did not finalise the cast from Bollywood yet.

But it’s the first time that Saudi actors are acting in a Bollywood movie and they will deliver the dialogues in Hindi without dubbing. Those Saudi actors are, model and host of Coke Studio Hamza Iskander, famous veteran actor Muhammad Bakhsh, Nosheen Waseem, Ahmed Eskander and Mustafa Bakhsh,” she concludes.