Recently, the painter allowed Amrita and Mahesh Babu starrer Atithi to be shot at his art centre in Cinema Ghar, Hyderabad. Needless to say, he didn’t charge a penny for it. A source says, "Amrita Rao plays an art student in the film. This explains the need to shoot at an art centre. When Husain learnt that Atithi stars Amrita Rao and that she plays the role of an art student, he sanctioned written permission immediately, allowing the crew to use the art centre to shoot for as many days as they wanted."
When contacted, M F Husain confirms that he did not charge any money when director Surendra Reddy wanted to shoot Atithi at his art centre in Hyderabad.
"They just wanted to shoot for a few days and I allowed it. I don’t think it was important to discuss money at all. So I let it be. I just made things easy for them. As for Amrita, I was impressed that she is playing an art student in Atithi ." Amrita is keen on returning the favour. She has agreed to perform at the inauguration of Husain’s museum in the UK.
Husain says, "Yes, it is true that Amrita is going to be here for the inauguration of my museum named Fida Museum — India of Mughal Era. She will be perform on two numbers— ‘ Pyar kiya to darna kya’ from Mughal-E-Azam and ‘Panghat pe’ , a Rajasthani folk song."
M F Husain says that the museum displays 51 paintings inspired from K Asif’s legendary film. "K Asif died at the age of 51. Hence, 51 paintings from Mughal-E-Azam ," he says. Husain and Amrita are working together in a film, too. "Yes, there’s a film with Amrita in the lead. It is called Comedy.com . It is comedy that will make you cry," Husain says.
Source: Timesofindia.com
