Writer Harinder Sikka launches fresh attack on Raazi director Meghna Gulzar, threatens to reveal texts: ‘Uncle uncle keh ke bewakoof bana gayi’

Writer Harinder Sikka, who wrote the novel that formed the basis of the 2018 Bollywood film Raazi, has once again lashed out at writer-lyric Gulzar and his daughter, Meghna Gulzar, the director of the film. In an interview, Harinder Sikka accused the two of ghosting him after securing the rights to his book, and making crucial changes to the story that he didn’t agree with. He said that he has emails and text messages from Meghna, and said that he has contemplated making them public to prove his case.
While speaking to The Alternate Media, he said that Gulzar requested him to endorse Meghna as the director of Raazi because she had been out of work for four years after directing Talwar. Harinder Sikka said that it is unusual for a writer to have the final say on who directs the movie adaptation of their book, but he made this a contractual stipulation.

He expressed disappointment at how Meghna and Gulzar treated him after securing she secured the job. “Yeh mujhe uncle uncle keh ke, Meghna Gulzar, bewakoof bana gayi (They made a fool of me). That hurts. Uncle this, uncle that. When she was made the director, there was a contract signed between us. There was a written understanding given to Junglee Pictures, that only Meghna, only Alia (Bhatt)…”
He accused both Gulzar and Meghna Gulzar of lying to him, and asked, “Kis tarah ke yeh log legends hain? Kis tarah se woh mere se aakhein mila ke chal sakenge? Ek baar mile mujhe Taj hotel mein, aankhein jhuka li (What kind of legends are they? They cannot see eye-to-eye with me. I ran into them once at a hotel, they lowered their gaze).”
In the same interview, Harinder Sikka threatened to reveal correspondence that he had had with both Meghna and her father about his dissatisfaction with the experience, and what he claimed to be violation of contracts. He said, “Now that you stand exposed, you don’t respond. Whatever I had to say, I sent a long email to Gulzar, he has not responded. He told me on the telephone that he will look into it. I told him I will put it on record and send it to him, and I sent everything with whatever texts Meghna Gulzar had written. Suppose I publish it tomorrow? What will be left of him?” Asked what’s stopping him from doing just that, he said that he wants to speak to them face to face, and that he wants to ‘give them a chance’.
Released in 2018, Raazi was received with critical and commercial acclaim. It earned Alia some of the best reviews of her career, and made nearly Rs 200 crore worldwide.