Raazi is a milestone movie of Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal ’s careers. While it established the fact that Alia can carry a movie on her shoulders, it also proved that Vicky can confidently perform romantic scenes given the chance. Based on a real story, the movie had a lot of interesting twists and points that kept the audience hooked. However, there are certain unknown and interesting facts about Raazi that every fan of this movie should know about.
Recreating Pakistan from the 70s was a challenge
The movie is the real story of Sehmat played by Alia Bhatt who was married off to a Pakistani officer during the 1970s. Hence it was important for the director Meghna Gulzar to recreate Pakistan of those times during the shooting and it posed a big challenge. The team shot in different locations in Delhi, Mumbai, and Kashmir and the crew had to deal with a lot of weather changes and extreme climatic conditions.
Original characters were anti-Pakistani
The original characters in the novel Calling Sehmat by Sikka were anti-Pakistani. However, during the making, Meghna Gulzar decided to make them more humane but by doing so she radically strayed away from the original script. Since it is a story of an Indian spy who goes into Pakistan for stealing information, it was important that the film takes a side but Raazi became ambivalent.
Patiala was depicted as Pakistan
Due to the strained relationship between India and Pakistan, the Raazi team decided to shoot the most important scenes depicting Pakistan in Patiala. While a few of the scenes have been shot in Kashmir, Meghna Gulzar wanted to shoot more scenes there. Even Alia who earlier worked on projects like Highway in Kashmir was eager for the same. However, unrest in the state forced the director to recreate Kashmir in the Film City of Mumbai.
Alia shared the screen with mom Soni for the first time
Alia shared the screen with her actress mom Soni Razdan for the first time in Raazi and that made her very nervous. Incidentally, later on, the actress revealed that she was more anxious for her mother and whether she has memorized all her dialogues or not. Soni returned to the big screen after a long gap and being her daughter it was natural for the Gangubai Kathiawadi actress to be a bit worried about her mom.
Gulzar was the first choice to direct Raazi
Years before Meghna Gulzar stepped into the shoes of her dad as director, a producer had offered this script of Raazi to Gulzar Saab. But at that time, the Khushboo director had decided to stop working and hence the movie could not be made.