Sriram Raghavan interview: The ‘certain ache in the heart’ that led to ‘Ikkis’

In Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis, a man whose 21-year-old son has been killed in the 1971 India-Pakistan War meets the person responsible for his death. The father not only finds it in his heart to forgive the guilt-stricken Pakistani soldier, but also makes a plea for a world in which there will be no more wars and no need for grief or remorse.

The very idea of empathy with Pakistan is controversial in the current climate. Equally rare is a war film that is anti-war. Raghavan’s poignant drama was released on January 1, barely a month after Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller Dhurandhar, which is seething with anti-Pakistan sentiment.

Among the criticisms levelled at Ikkis is that it goes soft on Pakistan and expresses “Aman Ki asha” values that don’t chime with the current regime’s hostile policy towards India’s neighbour.

A disclaimer at the end of Ikkis that circulated on social media fanned the fire. It declares that the Pakistani soldier Nisar, played by Jaideep Ahlawat, is an exception. “Our neighbour is completely unreliable,” the card reads. “Pakistan’s armies have displayed cruelty and inhumanity towards Indian soldiers and civilians during times of war and peace… Indian citizens should always be alert to Pakistan’s support for terrorist activities.”

Written by Raghavan, Pooja Ladha Surti and Arijit Biswas, the Maddock Films production is based on Arun Khetarpal, a tank commander with the Poona Horse regiment who died in Pakistan on December 16, 1971.

He had turned 21 only two months before. Khetarpal, who hailed from a long line of soldiers, was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his valour on the battlefield. In the film, he is played by Agastya Nanda. Dharmendra, in his final screen appearance, plays Arun’s father, Madan Khetarpal.

Ikkis is a departure for Raghavan, whose catalogue includes the acclaimed crime films Ek Hasina Thi, Johnny Gaddaar, Badlapur and Andhadhun. Raghavan was attracted to the story not only for Arun Khetarpal’s bravery but also because of his father’s journey to Pakistan 30 years later, he told Scroll.

While Raghavan declined comment on the disclaimer, he addressed the other controversies surrounding Ikkis and his vision behind the film.

Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

What was your initial idea behind Ikkis, and did it change when you set out to make the film?

I came across the subject in my producer Dinesh Vijan’s office. Binny Padda, who later became one of the producers, was narrating the story to him.

This is before Andhahun was released [in 2018]. I loved the graph of a boy becoming a man, but what also interested me was the true story of what happened 30 years later. During a time of Track II diplomacy, cultural activities being encouraged and visas being given, Arun Khetarpal’s father ML Khetarpal, who was born in undivided Punjab, decided to attend his college reunion and also possibly visit his home.

There was a certain beauty in that story. There was also the fact that he was being hosted by the man who had killed his son, who was carrying the burden of guilt or admiration or a combination thereof. I felt that this very human story deserved to be told.

If I was only making a film on Arun Khetarpal and his life, I don’t know what approach I would have taken. But with the other story of his father, the film got cohesion, a spine, a pivot.

The war happened in 1971, the second story happened in 2001. We are now living in 2026. There are different timelines, obviously. Different things are happening at different times. There was a time when there was a certain attempt at peace between the countries.

How did you and your co-writers Pooja Ladha Surti and Arijit Biswas develop the story?

We met Mukesh Khetarpal, Arun’s younger brother. We got a lot of information and contacts from him. There was a great deal of research. We got a sense of the Army ethos, the brotherhood, the discipline, the unity.

Such films need to be vetted by the Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information division before going into production. We got the clearance.

Mukesh took us to Lawrence School in Sanawar, where Arun had studied. We also met officers who had been with Arun at the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy. We even met Arun’s surviving tankmen.

We got to know bits and pieces about him, like in a jigsaw puzzle. We learnt of many stories that gave us a composite picture of him, some of which are there in the film. For instance, the time when he ratted on his friends, but then he also won them over again. There was a leadership arc in that.

There were incidents that we couldn’t include in the film. Mukesh told us about how, as children, they were gifted pullovers from London. Arun’s pullover went missing a few days later. He said he had lost it. Many years later, after Arun had died, Mukesh was at a tea stall. The tea stall owner said, I won’t take money from you, your brother gave me the pullover years ago when I was a child since he saw me shivering. It’s a beautiful story, but there was no scope to put it in the film.

There was another story that happened to Binny Padda’s father, who was in the para troops. During one of the wars, his commanding officer told him and a couple of other guys to do a recee along the border. They kept walking through the fog, and they came across a tank and an entire squadron.

The officer there was an elderly chap. He said, do you know where you are? Turn around and go back. Binny Padda’s father said, if you have to shoot me, shoot me in the front. The man said, I lost my son two days ago, and you look like him. Just go.

Did you have other war films in mind before making your own?

Our references included American films like Saving Private Ryan but also Russian films like Ballad of a Soldier and The Cranes Are Flying, which are essentially humanistic films about war. Yes, there is an enemy, there is death and violence, but at the end of it, there a certain ache in the heart, which is what I wanted to bring out.

That was what happened to me when I heard the story the first time. When I narrated it to Dharam ji, he too deeply connected with the story.

There is also Clint Eastwood’s diptych Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. When you see both the films, you will emote in the same manner, even though one of them is supposed to be about the enemy. In Ikkis, I felt I had the chance to show the other side too.

The bit where Arun becomes an officer and you learn about the history of his regiment was kept at the end of Ikkis – you remember him alive. I wanted a Titanic kind of moment, it wells me up every time I watch that film’s final scene.

Did you realise at any point that Ikkis could be controversial – and did you decide to go ahead with it anyway?

We never approached the story in a calculated way. We did what felt the most honest to us.

But also, we are not fools to do something that is incendiary either way. These two stories really happened. This is a story that is impossible to make up – I wouldn’t be able to think of it.

The more formidable the adversary, the stronger your hero becomes. For his men, Nisar is a gallant commander who inspires them. There’s no sense in making one guy a cardboard villain and the other a sort of cardboard hero.

Our first preview was for the Army. The Army screening was my heart-in-the-mouth moment – if they didn’t like the film, I wouldn’t know what to do.

The screening was packed – there were veterans too, the martyrs, their families. The reaction was damn good. People were deeply moved. They said, this is what being a soldier is all about, this is what the Indian Army ethos is about.

Were you surprised by the trolling?

Yes, I was completely surprised. There are all kinds of movies made by different kinds of people. I have made what is best for me, what we felt had the most heart, which would resonate.

I am not pro this or pro that. I wanted people to come out with a certain feeling in their hearts. It’s a humane feeling.

Some people who are passing comments about the film don’t appear to have seen it. A line of dialogue keeps getting quoted, which isn’t there in the film. Also the scene where Dharmendra says “Kaun dushman” has a context to it.

The father goes for a reunion, he meets his classmates, he has fun hanging out with them, and then when he’s back in his room, he wonders about his son who has died in this country. There’s a kind of a question mark in his head. That question mark is what the film is all about.

Is Ikkis your most political movie?

When I began Ikkis, I didn’t think I was making a political film or a war film. I said, let me make a war drama. Of course, every film has some kind of politics in it, but the point of Ikkis isn’t actually to make a point about this or that. The overall feeling is, here is a boy who died heroically, and then this is what happened later.

This wasn’t an easy film to make. But at no point was I scared that I was making a film like this and at this time. Because I trust the audience. Also, the fact remains that this is a true story. And Dharam ji was with me.