Meghna Gulzar on Raazi: “Knew that it had to be Alia Bhatt”
Raazi directed by Meghna Gulzar is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka’s novel Calling Sehmat and depicts the journey of an ordinary Indian girl, under extraordinary circumstances.
On casting the lead role, the director says,“I knew that the girl was a 20-year-old Kashmiri and in my head I knew that it had to be Alia Bhatt and no one else. I knew the graft that the girl was going to go through and the performance that was going to be needed. I was really sure that she was the only one that was going to be able to pull it off. I told her that if she was not going to do the film, I would not make it.”
On Alia’s role in the film, Gulzar further added: “Sehmat is not a femme fatale, she is an ordinary college-going girl who gets picked up and is put through a remarkable journey.”
“She is not a superhuman. There is a vulnerability to her and that quality stays with her till the end of her story. On the face of it, the film may come across as this espionage drama or thriller, but it is not Mission: Impossible. It is not going to be a hysterical, exaggerated, espionage thriller – those words scare me, actually. Even if my film belongs to that genre, it may not execute it or follow the format of the films in the genre. For me, and for all of us in the crew, it is this woman’s journey that has been inspiring.”
Presented by Junglee Pictures and Dharma Productions, Raazi is produced by Vineet Jain, Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar and Apoorva Mehta and is slated to release in cinemas 11th May 2018.
