Aditya Dhar’s Ranveer Singh and Dhurandhar may be making new history with their gritty espionage action thriller about the exploits of a RAW agent in Pakistan, a glimpse into the lives of real Indians who have been accused of espionage in an enemy country is no less engrossing and damn dangerous business.
Former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit’s book, Hostility: A Diplomat’s Diary on Pakistan-India relations published in 2021, suggests that Pakistan does not know what to do with Kulbhushan Jadhav, held in Pakistan since 2016 on espionage charges.
According to a former high commissioner posted to New Delhi between 2014 and 2017, Islamabad may have struggled with how to handle the high-profile case after Jadhav’s arrest in March 2016. Abdul Basit wrote that Pakistan had “boxed itself into a corner” over the Kulbhushan Jadhav case and that the country could not hang or free him easily. “It can neither exonerate Jadhav nor, it seems, hang him…perhaps the only option left for Pakistan is to legally complicate the matter and drag it out endlessly to save him from taking a tough decision.”
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Basit’s key contention regarding the matter was his strongly held view that Pakistan “mishandled the case from the beginning and (lost) its credibility gradually in the matter”.
In the book, Basit also revealed his frustration at being shut out of key India-Pakistan communications, alleging that then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used the “good offices of industrialist Sajjan Jindal” to carry messages regarding the Kulbhushan Jadhav affair, often without Basit’s knowledge.
India has always maintained that Jadhav was a former naval officer abducted from Iran, while Pakistan says he was a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent arrested in Balochistan for espionage and sabotage.
The case was taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered Pakistan to stay Jadhav’s execution and grant him consular access. In earlier statements, Basit has repeatedly said that Pakistan had enough evidence to convict Jadhav of espionage and had shared some of that information with the Indian government. He referred to Jadhav as a “terrorist” who “should meet his fate” for his actions.
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In other words – unlike sashay Ranveer Singh, who is winning hearts and minds and raving detractors – Jadhav is likely to remain in Pakistan for the foreseeable future.
No less interesting is the story of the former Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik, who allegedly managed to infiltrate the Pakistani system with the code name “Black Tiger”, who rose in the Pakistani army as a deep-cover RAW agent and adopted the identity of Nabi Ahmed Shakir. He studied law, joined the accounts department of the Pakistani army and proved capable of handling sensitive intelligence, eventually becoming a major in the early 1980s, allowing him to send vital information back to India before the revelations in 1983. He died in a Pakistani prison in 2001.
Unlike Dhurandhar, Bollywood has been much more stingy with real Indian heroes, at least in three cases. Films like Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai and Romeo Akbar Walter are widely believed to have been inspired by Ravindra Kaushik’s life, but received no credit from the filmmakers who did not officially credit him or his family.
In the case of Akbar Walter’s Romeo, while the film was marketed as “inspired by true events”, the main character played by John Abraham was named Rehamatullah Khan, not Ravindra Kaushik. The lack of official recognition of the real “Black Tiger” has been a point of contention for his family and supporters. Directed by Robbie Grewal, the film is described as “loosely based” on Kaushik’s life rather than a direct official biopic.
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The issue of intellectual property (IP) rights in the Ravindra Kaushik case arose when his family repeatedly claimed that the plot of another Bollywood film Ek Tha Tiger (2012) was based on his life and claimed credit. Ek Tha Tiger director Kabir Khan has denied that the film is based on the life of a spy. The film was presented as fiction. No intellectual property rights have been officially recognized or granted to his family.
Bollywood has always maintained that since the government never recognized Ravindra Kaushik as an agent for diplomatic reasons, its formal claims for recognition or compensation through official channels were difficult. Nice hand washing if there was one.
Intelligence operations are top secret, and a spy’s identity and service are often officially redacted for national security purposes. This inherent secrecy means that a personal life story related to espionage may not have the typical documentation or legal standing required to claim IP in the public domain.
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In contrast, Hollywood has produced several critically acclaimed spy biopics and thrillers based on true events. These films often mix historical accuracy with dramatic narrative to explore the complexities and human costs of intelligence work.
Hollywood productions often pay for the rights to life stories for biopics, and this can also apply to spy biopics. Whether the subject or his estate will be paid depends on the proceedings and the nature of the film.
From Argo (2012) to the Imitation Game (2014) and Operation Mincemeat (2022) are blockbusters of this genre that have been duly recognized and appreciated.
