A Kashmiri by origin, Tariq Tapa was tired of films being made on Kashmir that revolved around terrorism. Having studied filmmaking in the US, he finally made his directorial debut at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) with “Zero Bridge” on life and people in state.

“In recent times, every film on Kashmir has had some reference to terrorism. I wanted to make a film on the people and their life in Kashmir,” Tariq told IANS.

“Zero Bridge”, which was screened here Saturday, is about a boy Dilwara who stays in the outskirts of Srinagar with his uncle after he was abandoned by his adoptive mother. Rebellious by nature, Dilwara hates his current life and secretly plans to join his adoptive mother in Delhi.

“Zero Bridge” has been nominated for the international competition for debutant directors at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival Oct 29-Nov 5. The movie, which stars people who are not professional actors, was completed in nine months. Further, it had no proper crew as Tariq donned the roles of director, lightman, cameraman and editor.

“The film is about the normal people of Kashmir; so I chose among them. I had a tight budget; so I did the lighting, camera, direction, editing and marketing almost single-handedly. My producer Hilal Ahmed and my lead actor Imran Tapa assisted me to some extent,” Tariq said.

Kashmiri by origin, Tariq was born and brought up in New York and studied filmmaking in Houston. He has done extensive research on Kashmir and its people.