Meet Harinder Sikka, the Man Behind “Calling Sehmat” and “Raazi”

Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal’s upcoming film Raazi has already created a big buzz, what with the trailer promising an engaging story and some powerhouse performances. What’s even more interesting is that the Meghna Gulzar film is based on Calling Sehmat, a book written by Lieutenant Commander Harinder Sikka that’s in turn inspired by a true story.

Sikka encountered the story of the woman he named Sehmat in his book during the throes of the 1999 Kargil War, when an army official recounted the tale of how his mother, a Kashmiri Muslim woman, married a Pakistani army officer to act as a spy for her country; and how single-handedly she saved scores of lives by discovering the Pakistani plot to sink INS Vikrant.

In an interview with Film Companion, Sikka recounted how he managed to meet the real Sehmat.

In 2000, I located Sehmat in Kotla (in Punjab), with great difficulty. She refused to speak to me. I sat outside her door from 10am to 5pm with only a bottle of water. She didn’t open the door at first, but when she realised I was adamant, she called me in.The first thing I asked her was why she had shifted from the beautiful hills of Srinagar to Kotla. She said that Abdul lived here. When I asked her who Adbul was, she said he was Brigadier Syed’s servant, who had died. When I asked her the cause of his death, she said, “I crushed him under a truck.” Imagine a petite, beautiful, intelligent woman, who does not seem like she can kill a fly, killing a man. Our nation does not recognise such warriors.  

Lieutenant Commander Harinder Sikka, Author, Calling Sehmat

In a 2008 interview with The Hindu, Sikka recounted that he got just the basic story from Sehmat. The rest he fictionalised.

Slowly, she opened up but I still don’t know how she managed to take out such secret information from Pakistani intelligence. All the information she passed on from there matched with the Indian intelligence report here,” he states, adding, “Though I found out that she used to tutor General Yahya Khan’s grandchildren.”

But Calling Sehmat is not a reportage. While the basic skeleton of the story is based on Sehmat’s story, the rest is fiction, asserts Sikka. “It took me nearly eight years to complete the book as I had to keep digging for information... I code-named the protagonist Sehmat, which means ‘agreement’,” he says.

Sehmat is no more, while her son is out of the Army now.

Sikka, who incidentally has produced the National Award-winning film Nanak Shah Fakir, approached Gulzar to make a film on Calling Sehmat, but the veteran poet-filmmaker was not keen. Circumstances finally led to his daughter Meghna helming the film.

I found everything I wanted in a director in her – passion, compassion, skills. She radiated honesty and sincerity. We had many sittings as she had 10 million questions about Sehmat. By the end, she understood the character to a T.  

Interestingly, Sikka thought of casting Angelina Jolie for the role of Sehmat.

At one point, I thought of approaching Angelina Jolie. I had found a teenager who looked like her to play the young Sehmat and I thought Angelina could play the older one. When Alia was cast, I met her and described how Sehmat looked, behaved, her patriotism, relationship with her parents and love for her father. She’s a smart and focused actress and I knew instinctively that she would do well.  

And what does Sikka seek to achieve through Sehmat’s story?

I want people to understand that there are thousands of Sehmats in every nook and corner of our country. I want them to respect the soil. Like Sehmat says, “Watan ke aage, kuch bhi nahi”.

Raazi releases on 11 May.

(Source: Film Companion, The Hindu)

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