Meghna Gulzar is working on a biopic of war hero Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, the director told DNA on Saturday, a day after the release of her latest film Raazi. The first Indian Army Officer to be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal, Manekshaw played a pivotal role in India’s wars against China in 1962 and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. “I have been committed to it for a year or so,” Gulzar said. “It’s a subject that requires some serious amount of research.”
Gulzar is also working on a film about acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, she told the newspaper. Attacked at the age of 15 by a 32-year-old man who was sexually harassing her, Laxmi is the director of Chhanv Foundation, which provides assistance to Indian acid attack survivors. “I met her [Laxmi] in 2016 and I have the film rights,” Gulzar said.
Gulzar’s Talvar (2015) is based on the twin murders of Arushi Talwar and Hemraj Banjade in 2008, while Raazi is an adaptation of Harinder S Sikka’s novel Calling Sehmat. Raazi revolves around Sehmat Khan (Alia Bhatt), a Kashmiri woman who marries a Pakistani military officer (Vicky Kaushal) to collect intelligence ahead of the 1971 India-Pakistan war.