Honey Trehan on Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s biopic: ‘You can’t research him, you need to read his poems’

Filmmaker Honey Trehan on familiarising himself with poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s work as he scripts the biopic. He is grateful to Batalvi’s family for entrusting him with the rights to his life story

Even as the release of Panjab ’95, the biopic on human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, remains uncertain, Honey Trehan has found another story in the same state. The director has begun scripting the biopic of legendary Punjabi poet and writer Shiv Kumar Batalvi. “Jaswant Singh Khalra and he were different from each other, but they both were spiritual,” he smiles.

Honey Trehan

Trehan is grateful to Batalvi’s family for entrusting him with the rights to his life story. Making a biopic entails exhaustive research. But the filmmaker says that when it comes to the poet, the only way to enter his mind is through his writings. “You can’t research him, you need to read his poems to understand him. He has written everything about himself in his poetries. Every time I read a poetry, I discover a new [meaning] and expression in it,” he marvels. He has yet to zero in on an actor to play the famed writer.

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