‘A person called Samar Khan from Shah Rukh Khan’s company said I won’t let you work in Mumbai,’ recalls ‘Calling Sehmat’ author Harinder Sikka: ‘We give Rs 5-7 lakh to Chetan Bhagat, who are you?’ | | Hindi Movie News

Alia Bhatt’s Raazi is considered to be one of the biggest hits of her career, but the film continues to face criticism from. Harinder Singh Sikkaauthor of Calling Sehmat, the book that inspired the 2018 spy drama. In a recent interview, Sikka criticized filmmaker Gulzar, director Meghna Gulzar and the person who recognized him as his representative Shah Rukh Khan‘s Red Chillies Entertainment.Sikka said that his first meeting with Gulzar took place around 2016-17, when the veteran music composer and filmmaker encouraged him to consider Meghna Gulzar for the role.“When I went to meet Gulzar at his house, he told me, ‘My daughter has not got any job for four years. People think that Talvar was created by Vishal Bharwaj. So give her a job”. I said, ‘I’ll do it. It’s a promise’,” he said in an interview with the YouTube channel Desimartini.Sikka added that he later discussed the matter with Vishal Bharwaj, who, according to him, replied, “Vishal said, ‘I am like Gulzar’s son. Those words said it all.”According to Sikka, he has agreed to part with the rights of the film Calling Sehmat only if he is responsible for choosing the director and the directors. He said that Junglee Pictures finally agreed to the terms, albeit reluctantly.“And that’s how Meghna Gulzar became the project manager,” he said.Sikka also said that Meghna remained on good terms with him throughout the making of the film, and called him “uncle.” However, he said that their equation changed soon after the recording.“I don’t want to call you uncle anymore.”The author also criticized the many creative liberties taken in editing his book, saying that the changes significantly changed the meaning of the original story.“According to the book, when Sehmat returned, he was received by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) with a red carpet and saluted with the tricolor. That was the real story. Meghna pulled this off and brought Sehmat back into the mood and portrayed her as a Kashmiri woman who made the mistake of fighting for India. There were no tricolors in the film but there were many Pakistani flags,” he said adding, “They portrayed the Pakistani army as a soft and questioning IB.“Sikka also said that he contacted Gulzar after the release of Raazi in 2018 and accused him of delaying the publication of his book. He also said that Gulzar had urged the organizers of the Jaipur Literature Festival not to invite him.“Gulzar called the Jaipur Literature Festival and told them not to invite me after I tried to make his daughter a director.”He also said that the title of the film was deliberately changed from Calling Sehmat to Raazi.“They changed the name of the film from Calling Sehmat to Raazi so that Sehmat doesn’t get the same importance as Meghna because they wanted to protect Meghna,” he said.In the same conversation, Sikka recounted an earlier incident that he said happened in 2008, when a man named Samar Khan, who was then a director at Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, approached him to get the rights to Sehmat.According to Sikka, he quoted Rs 1.5 crore for the rights and insisted on controlling the choice of director and cast. He said that those demands were rejected.“He got up and said,” We give Rs 5-7 lakh to Chetan Bhagat. ‘Who are you?’ I refused to sell him the book. He said, ‘We will make it. “You do whatever you want.”Sikka also said that after a discussion with his colleague, Major Chibba, the dispute ended and he received a written apology from Samar Khan. However, he said that in a later meeting, Khan also said.“Within two weeks, I received an apology from Samar Khan but when he met me face to face, he said, ‘I will not allow you to work in Mumbai’.Earlier this year, in March, Sikka described letting Meghna Gulzar lead Raazi as his “bad judgement.” Despite her repeated criticism of the film and its makers over the years, neither Meghna Gulzar nor Gulzar have publicly responded to her allegations.