A press conference was recently held to announce the list of cast members on board for the upcoming Tun Mahathir biopic called “Mahathir, The Journey”.
Unfortunately, our Prime Minister’s eldest daughter, Marina Mahathir is not really pleased upon receiving the news. Take a look at her tweets below:
On Tuesday (12th November), the social activist took to her Twitter to give her two cents on the upcoming movie. According to Marina, she was not aware of the film’s existence prior to this. “No endorsement from any of us for this!” the 62-year-old wrote on her account.
In addition, she further tweeted that her family members would rather have “nobody made any movies, biopics, musicals, cartoons, whatever about us. Because it’s just embarrassing. But if you have to, please don’t make us watch them.”
Explain to who? No they won’t be accurate. So if anyone thinks they’re getting some new insights, they’re not. It’s just weird. So many other worthy subjects for films.
— Marina Mahathir (@netraKL) November 12, 2019
Ya, why not make a movie about them?! https://t.co/FD0pwAjeid
— Marina Mahathir (@netraKL) November 12, 2019
Marina also expressed that “it’s completely cringe-making” to think that a movie is being made about her family. The 62-year-old public figure also said that “it’s also very intrusive”.
According to The Star, “Mahathir, The Journey” is estimated to have a RM6mil budget. It is believed that the film, which will highlight several important political events in Malaysia, will debut in July 2020, somewhere closer to Dr Mahathir’s 95th birthday.
As a response, the producer for the movie, Yusof Kelana commented that the project will still continue despite the disapproval from any parties or characters involved.
According to Yusof, he has obtained the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)’s permission to carry on with the release and he will come up with an official letter to all the figures involved in the movie in the near future.
“We started the project for about 7 months ago. The scripts of the movie have also went through reshuffling for 12 times before we finally got the green light from PMO,” Yusuf said to mStar.
“The film is solely about Tun Mahathir and his struggles, not about Marina,” Yusuf clarified, before adding, “We have tried to reach Marina’s assistant after the launching. Even Ning Baizura (actress for Marina’s role) tried to contact her. Since the movie is based on a true story, all the characters, storyline, scripts and locations will remain the same and will never change.”
Aside from Ning, other cast members include Azhar Amir (Tun Mahathir), Fauziah Latiff (Tun Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali), Hilal Azman (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim), Dian P Ramlee (Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail), Lisdawati (Nurul Izzah Anwar), Dazrin Kamarudin (Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman) and Afieq Hussain (Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir).
Directed by Prof. Mohamad Hatta Azad Khan, “Mahathir: The Journey” is set to begin filming this coming December.
