Filmmaker and Dharma Productions head honcho Karan Johar has bought the rights to author Nitin Gokhale’s book RN Kao: Gentleman Spymaster to turn it into a feature film in association with Still And Still Media.
Johar made the announcement on Twitter yesterday. “Turning pages into frames, one thrill at a time. Bringing to you an adaptation of Nitin Gokhale’s book 'RN Kao: Gentleman Spymaster',” he wrote.
Rameshwar Nath Kao was the man who founded India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, commonly known by its abbreviation RAW.
Johar’s post described the film as “an adaptation of the book RN Kao: Gentleman Spymaster". Written by Nitin Gokhale, the book tells the story of Kao, who founded India’s external intelligence agency and how he went on to become a success story in the world of international espionage.
Born in 1918, Kao founded RAW in 1968. He also worked as the personal security chief of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and as security adviser to prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Kao also founded the Aviation Research Centre (ARC).
Nitin Gokhale had a long career in journalism and has written seven books so far, including one on India’s current prime minister, Narendra Modi, titled Securing India: The Modi Way. He is currently a national security analyst for the government of India.
Interestingly, Jackie Shroff's character in the John Abraham-starrer Romeo Akbar Walter (2019) was said to have been inspired by RN Kao. But when asked about the same during an interview last year, Shroff had said, "I have only done my role what was written. I think playing a man who has laid the seed of intelligence.... then it was a seed, now it’s a tree. I think it has grown to a very big thing. Because of intel, we are all sitting out here."
Now we need to wait and see who will play Ram Nath Kao in Johar's movie. Considering his closeness with Akshay Kumar, coupled with the fact that the actor has been playing nationalistic roles for the past few years, we shouldn't be surprised if he is brought on board.