Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNews Reports'Raazi' author Harinder Sikka exposes how Bollywood lobby operates, says Meghna Gulzar hounded him...

‘Raazi’ author Harinder Sikka exposes how Bollywood lobby operates, says Meghna Gulzar hounded him out of events to steal credit for the story

Speaking to WION in January 2020, Sikka had stated that Meghna had deliberately kept him out of the preview screenings and post-production work because she did not want him to know how she had changed the ending.

The can of worms that Sushant Singh Rajput’s tragic death had opened, keeps popping up ugly secrets of Bollywood that have long been buried. As the debate around the dirty lobbying, nepotism and mafia-type operations of Bollywood intensifies, a lot of artists and prominent names have been speaking up about the dirty underbelly of the shining glamour world.

In a Republic TV debate over the Bollywood lobbying gangs, prominent author Harinder Sikka, whose production Nanak Shah Fakir had won three national film awards in 2016, has spoken on how Meghana Gulzar, the acclaimed moviemaker, had worked to hound him out of the Jaipur Literature Festival, book launch events and even awards. Sikka said that it was because Meghna Gulzar wanted all the credits for Raazi for herself and the Bollywood mafia gang did not want an ‘outsider’ like Sikka to be given any awards or accolades.

Sikka stated that Gulzar had pressurised the organisers of the Jaipur lit fest to remove Sikka from the event so that his book launch is delayed. He also claimed that his name was removed from the award for the best original story in the Filmfare awards at the behest of the Gulzars and even his movie Nanak Shah Fakir was not sent as India’s entry for the Oscars because the Bollywood mafia did not want an ‘outsider’ to steal the thunder.

Harinder Sikka’s allegations against Meghna Gulzar

Harinder Sikka is the author of the bestseller ‘Calling Sehmat’, the story of a Kashmiri girl who was trained as a spy and was married in a prominent Pakistani military family to gather information for the Indian Army. The story was made into the 2018 Bollywood blockbuster ‘Raazi’ starring Alia Bhat in the lead role.

Sikka had earlier also claimed that Meghna Gulzar had tampered with the story to portray a negative image of the Indian Army. In the movie, the protagonist Sehmat, after accomplishing her goals as a spy, is shown returning to India as a broken, depressed woman. Portraying the image that the Indian Army had used, and exploited a young Kashmiri girl. However, in Sikka’s book, Sehmat had returned India as a strong woman, proud of her achievements and with love and longing for her homeland.

Speaking to WION in January 2020, Sikka had stated that Meghna had deliberately kept him out of the preview screenings and post-production work because she did not want him to know how she had changed the ending. He had also claimed that the launch of his book was deliberately delayed by the Gulzars so Meghna, and not Sikka gets all the credit.

Sikka had earlier shared on Twitter that due to Meghna Gulzar’s short-sightedness, Raazi, which should have won multiple awards, appeared confused and negative in the end. Though the movie got commercial success, which, the author thinks was mostly due to Alia Bhat’s stellar performance, it ended up becoming a ‘folklore’. He had added that while signing away the rights of the story, he had made Meghna Gulzar promise that she will not tinker with the story. He had added that he feels backstabbed by Gulzar. He had also added that when ‘Lady Sehmat’ had returned to India, a band had played the national anthem and she had saluted the tricolour as a proud woman. The author had also revealed that Lady Sehmat had wanted Alia to play the character.

Ayodhra Ram Mandir special coverage by OpIndia

  Support Us  

Whether NDTV or 'The Wire', they never have to worry about funds. In name of saving democracy, they get money from various sources. We need your support to fight them. Please contribute whatever you can afford

OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

Related Articles

Trending now

Recently Popular

- Advertisement -

Connect with us

255,564FansLike
665,518FollowersFollow
41,500SubscribersSubscribe