Director Meghna Gulzar’s upcoming film Raazi is the gripping story of an Indian spy. The film will be featuring Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal in the lead roles. The trailer has just been released and cannot deny Alia Bhatt just stole the show. The thrilling trailer looks intriguing and promising. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, have a look.

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Now that you have seen the trailer and know the film is based on true events, you must be curious about Sehmat Khan. Before we accept Alia Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, let’s get to know a bit more about the real Sehmat Khan, the valiant spy.

ALSO READ: ‘Raazi’ trailer: Alia Bhatt looks powerful as Sehmat

Raazi is based on a novel written by Harinder Sikka, a former Indian Navy officer. The novel titled Calling Sehmat is based on the story of a Kashmiri woman who married a Pakistani officer during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Sehmat Khan was instructed so by her father to get into the other country as a spy. The mission was initiated by Indian intelligence to acquire every possible information and Sehmat joined the service of her country.

The book begins with the death of Sehmat as her son Samar enters the room only to find his mother’s body covered in the Tricolour. The narration then goes back to the early days of her life as a college student and then leads to her training as a spy. During her mission, she acquired invaluable information for the Indian intelligence and saved many lives.

There is also an interesting tale of how Harinder Sikka got to know about Sehmat Khan. In an interview to The Hindu in 2008, the author had revealed all about it. Sikka never disclosed the real name of the woman as that would be dangerous for her. Talking about his doubts about the patriotism of people, he said, “I was very angry then and even questioned the patriotism of certain people in the Intelligence Department. There, during one such discussion, an Army officer told me that not everyone is the same. I was not too convinced about it upon which he gave the example of his mother, much to my surprise. She married a Pakistani Army officer to provide India with classified information during the 1971 war. She was a Kashmiri Muslim.”

Harinder Sikka met his ‘Sehmat’ at her house in Malerkotla in Punjab after a lot of efforts. “But she would not speak much. 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,” Sikka revealed about the undercover spy.

The author took eight years to write the story of Sehmat, who is dead now. Sikka says, “I am yet to fathom how Sehmat’s father, a rich businessman in Kashmir then, could push his daughter to do such a dangerous thing. It was the ultimate test of patriotism for the family. Despite being an ex-soldier myself, I feel proud to admit that I learned the real meaning of patriotism from her story.”