The debate of ‘insiders vs outsiders’ in Bollywood is doing the rounds nowadays. Many celebrities have started speaking up by sharing their views and personal experiences on the same. Kangana Ranaut in a recent interview has opened up about how the Bollywood biggies humiliate the outsiders and took a dig at Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, Mahesh Bhatt, Javed Akhtar and others. However, the writer of the book ‘Calling Sehmat’ has called out Meghna Gulzar for not giving him the due credit for ‘Raazi’ during a panel discussion with Republic TV.
Harinder Sikka during a panel discussion with Arnab Goswami, the Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV has alleged ‘Raazi’ director Meghna Gulzar of removing him from everything and taking the whole credit.
“I wrote Raazi and this is proof against my name by (Meghna) Gulzar. It was written to me by Jaipur Literature Festival. I was removed from everything, from Filmfare, my book was not allowed to be launched by Gulzar in person. You want me read out this email where Jaipur Literature Festival head says, ‘In my 35 years of career, I have never seen anybody bulldozing to remove one person.’ In this particular case, Gulzar is the case in point,” Sikka accused showing a printout of his email in his hands.
He added, “My book was tried to be delayed? Why? Every credit must go to Meghna Gulzar. First Jaipur Literature Festival, then the Filmfare Awards. The best original screenplay award was to be given to me but it was removed, it was given to some film by the name Andhadhun which was a copy of a French book because I was to be removed.”
Sikka has three National Awards under his name for his movie Nanak Shah Fakir. He declared that his film didn’t get its due credit because of him being an outsider. He said, “My film that was to go for Oscars – Nanak Shah Fakir was not allowed because someone came from Bollywood and said, ‘Oh he is an outsider, we were send our picture’.”
The writer also accused Meghna Gulzar of taking away the credit from the original writer for her directorial venture ‘Chaapak’ starring Deepika Padukone. He claimed, “It is not the only one, what did Meghna do further! Chhapaak. She took away that poor writer – the lawyer in Delhi, her credit away. Ask Ravi Tandon (Raveena Tandon’s father) about what happened. There is a history of mafia operating. I have nothing against nobody, it’s not my profession. This happens because I was an outsider.”
Meghna Gulzar is yet to respond to the allegations made against her.
‘Raazi’ has won the Filmfare ‘Critics Award for Best Film’ and for ‘Best Screenplay’.