In Popular Culture
Unlike Hollywood, which had portrayed FBI, CIA, MI6 etc. in various films, Bollywood has been shy to explore the area of espionage, especially R&AW on the silver screen. R&AW gets little attention from the populace, which seems unaware of the existence of such an organisation or even India's internal intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau. Excessive secrecy surrounding activities and rare declassification of information are blamed as the main reason behind this. But there are films from Bollywood which refers to agents, espionage, terrorism etc. but till recently none of them openly mentioned R&AW.
The earliest Indian films portraying espionage were Aankhen (1968, Ramanand Sagar Production, Starring Dharmendra, Mala Sinha), Prem Pujari starring Dev Anand in 1970, Hindustan Ki Kasam (Starring Raaj Kumar, Priya Rajvansh in 1973). However over time, films like "EK THA TIGER(starring SALMAN KHAN AND KATRINA KAIF), Agent Vinod (starring Saif Ali Khan), The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (Starring Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta and Priyanka Chopra), Such a Long Journey (1998, UK Canada Co-production, Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, starring Naseeruddin Shah), 16 December (Starring Danny Denzongpa, Milind Soman, Sushant Singh, Dipanita Sharma), Hindustan Ki Kasam (1999, starring Ajay Devgan in double role, Amitabh Bachchan), Asambhav (2004), starring Arjun Rampal as Army Captain and Jammel Khan essaying the role of a fictional R&AW agent Atul Bhatnagar etc. have openly mentioned R&AW and its allied units. Popular Hindi movie Veer-Zaara mentioned the intelligence agency R&AW, when the lead character Veer (portrayed by Shahrukh Khan) was accused by Pakistani police of being an undercover spy for R&AW. In Mission Istanbul, model actress Shweta Bhardwaj played the role of Lisa Lobo, a R&AW agent in Istanbul, who helps journalist Vikas Sagar, played by Zayed Khan, in foiling the anti - India terrorist attempts by a terror group. In Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam Rahul Bose plays a R&AW officer (Arjun Rastogi) who attempts to thwart explosives delivery in the city. In Chamku R&AW is shown as undertaking a covert program much in the lines of the Bourne series to build up an assassination team. Aazaan is also a 2011 film featuring Sachiin J Joshi as a R&AW officer who plays an informant, who has to go undercover beyond enemy lines to save the country from the threat of biological warfare. The film Ek Tha Tiger portrays Salman Khan as a R&AW officer. It is alleged that the film is inspired by the life of Ravinder Kaushik, a deep penetration agent of R&AW.
Apart from Bollywood, the other film industries of India have also cashed in on the patriotic appeal of espionage. Telugu movie star Krishna's film titled Goodachari No. 1 explores the life of an undercover agent working to thwart ISI activities in India. Cine star Bala Krishna's latest film in the direction of Swarna Subba Rao, titled Vijayendra Varma is based on a real life story of a R&AW agent, where he donned the role of the R&AW officer in the film. The Tamil movie Ottran casts Arjun Sarja as a R&AW officer. A 1990s Malayalam film Highway portrays Suresh Gopi as a R&AW agent investigating a bomb blast. Kamal Hasan in a film titled Dasavathaaram and later a dubbed Hindi version titled Dashavatar essayed the role of a Telugu (in original film)/Bengali(in Hindi version) R&AW operative.
The thriving entertainment channels in India have also started to tap into the theme of Intelligence agencies. Time Bomb 9/11, a series aired on Zee TV, features Rajeev Khandelwal in the role of a R&AW field officer who attempts to defuse a nuclear bomb set in India, as well as saving the life of the Indian Prime Minister. Zee Bangla featured a serial named Mohona where the chief protagonist is a R&AW officer. Sajda Tere Pyar Mein a series on Star Plus, features Shaleen Bhanot in the role of a R&AW officer who asks a girl named Aliya for help in catching a spy named Mahendra Pratap.
In Anthony Horowitz's book Crocodile Tears, reluctant teen spy Alex Rider is assisted multiple times by R&AW agent Rahim.
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