Saifi ready to show `Anjuna Beach` to Fiona before release

Filmmaker Shakeel S Saifi, who has made the movie `Anjuna Beach` based on Scarlet Eden Keeling`s death case in Goa, has offered to screen it for her mother Fiona Mackeown ahead of its release on July 29.

Saifi, the writer and director, said he had absolutely no problems in showing the film to Fiona as it was meant to give justice to the victim.

"There is nothing derogatory against Fiona or Scarlet. The film is trying to portray the real picture of Goa: how politicians have a nexus with the drug mafia," Saifi told reporters over the phone from Mumbai.

"I have personally spoken to Fiona and her lawyer Vikram Varma. They have been offered a private screening before theatrical release of the movie," he said, adding that he is not making money at the cost of someone`s dignity.

The Mumbai-based filmmaker said he wanted to make a movie either on Arushi Talwar, Jessica Lall or Scarlet.

"I chose Scarlet because no one has tried to give justice to a foreign woman killed in India," he said.

British teenager Scarlet`s bruised corpse was found at Anjuna beach in Goa on February 18, 2008.

The film is partly shot at Anjuna beach, the actual location where Scarlet`s body was found while majority of it was filmed in Mumbai.

Saifi said that state-run Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) had given permission for just a day to shoot but later withdrew it.

"The crucial scene of murder was shot with low lights at Anjuna," he said.

The filmmaker claimed that he had to bribe Anjuna police to let him continue the shooting. "I have recorded how police came and tried to stop the shooting and went back after accepting money from us," he said.

In the movie, Ukranian actress Nataliya Kozhenova is introduced as Jessica (Scarlet). The movie has Kiran Kumar as lawyer Jackie Fernandes (Vikram Varma) and Iranian actress Farhanaaz Khan as Maria (Fiona).

Saifi, a theatre actor from Delhi who migrated to Mumbai in the 90s, concedes that his film is a low budget one.

"I haven`t spent a fortune in the movie but the message I am trying to deliver through it is important," he said.

The movie has all the Bollywood elements in it including a mafia don, corrupt police inspector, a foreigner mother and deceitful friends, Saifi said, adding that the script is a compilation of all the media coverage of the unfortunate incident.