Will Alia Bhatt's spy drama Raazi be released in Pakistan?

Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi is a spy drama set in 1971, around the time of the Bangladesh war. Alia Bhatt plays a spy who marries a man (Vicky Kaushal) in Pakistan with the sole intention of ferreting out and passing information back to India.

In the past few years, any Indian film with the slightest reference to Pakistan has been getting banned across the border. The latest was the Salman Khan- and Katrina Kaif-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), though the film had nothing anti-Pakistan in it.

With Alia Bhatt’s character in Raazi playing an Indian spy, there is obviously a question mark on whether the film will be released in Pakistan.

Asked about this at the launch of the song ‘Aye Watan’, director Meghna said she had left it to her producer, Dharma Productions, which is Karan Johar’s banner. 

“I leave it entirely to my capable producers to decide how the film will be released in Pakistan," she said. "My only job was to make the film and give it to them.” 

Last year, Gurinder Chadha’s Partition 1947 and Shivam Nair’s Taapsee Pannu-starrer Naam Shabana were also banned in Pakistan for allegedly showing the country in poor light.

Raazi will be released in India on 11 May.