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Mumbai-based Abuli Mamaji suffers
from Down's Syndrome, but that isn't stopping him from starring in a
forthcoming Bollywood film. Abuli will be playing a character close to his real self on screen. Director Nikhil Pherwani has cast him as a protagonist suffering from the illness, in his film tentatively titled Ahaan. While
films based on various illnesses have lately become popular in
Bollywood, this is probably the first time that a person suffering from a
condition has been cast to play the character on screen. "The
film is about a new beginning for Ahaan, the character played by Abuli.
The message I want to give through the unusual subject is that we
should not shun the special adults in our society," Nikhil said. The film also casts Adil Hussain of English Vinglish and Life Of Pi fame.
Hussain is cast as Ahaan's uncle Ozzy, who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A female lead will also be confirmed soon. Nikhil
met Abuli during his many visits to a special workshop centre in
Mumbai. Abuli, 34, seemed an outgoing and interactive person and the
filmmaker was curious to know about his life.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
