New Delhi:
Among the stash of accolades, author Harinder Sikka thinks that the movie, Raazi, which is based on his book, "Calling Sehmat" would have also gone on to win a National Award had it not been for director Meghna Gulzar. Talking about the movie that starred Alia Bhatt aka Sehmat who throws herself into marrying a Pakistani Army officer in order to spy for India, Sikka expressed unhappiness for having the "Tricolour scene", a real incident during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, removed from the Gulzar film.
Stating that the movie would also have won a national award with the inclusion of the ‘Tricolor Scene’, Sikka, during the "Yatharth or Kalpana ka Saath" at the Dainik Jagran Samvadi 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. 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," Sikka said.
Talking about the book, Sikka said: "I was a person who had never written a book, and my first book 'Calling Sehmat' sold around five lakh copies. Sehmat taught me how to live. We very easily paint all Kashmiri Muslims with the same brush, saying that Kashmiris are terrorists. We have to understand that no mother wants her son to carry a stone in his hand. Terrorism has been being funded there for so many years but there have also been Kashmiris like Sehmat who gave up their entire families for the country. Much has changed since the abrogation of Article 370. My next book is 'Section 370', and Sehmat is the inspiration again."
