Did Meghna Gulzar stop Raazi from getting a national award?

MUMBAI: Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi received critical acclaim and won quite a few awards. It won the Filmfare Best Film Award. Meghna was adjudged the best director at the same awards show. It also bagged Best Film and Best Actress award (Alia Bhatt) at IIFA.

Harinder Sikka, the author of Calling Sehmat, claims that Raazi couldn’t bag a national award all thanks to Meghna Gulzar. Insisting that the director shouldn’t have edited a crucial sequence from the film, a ‘tricolour scene’ that cost Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal starrer Raazi the national award. The film revolves around the character of Sehmat, played by Alia Bhatt, an Indian girl who ties the knot with a Pakistani officer to spy for her home country.

Harinder Sikka has ended his book with the central character Sehmat, saluting the tricolour. Speaking at a media event, Harinder said, ‘In the book, the story ends with Sehmat saluting the tricolour. If the film had the same ending, the film would have won the National Award.’ He instated that, ‘I told the director that you have stopped the film from getting National Award by cutting the tricolour scene in the film. Though this was done by the wishes of the filmmakers, but I still have a resentment over it.’

Meanwhile, Meghna’s next will star Deepika Padukone. The film Chhappak is based on the story of Laxmi Agarwal, an acid attack survivor.

Credits: SpotboyE