Meghna Gulzar on Raazi set with Alia Bhatt

Known to be forthright, Meghna Gulzar asks me right at the start of the interview, "Can you think of anyone better than Alia for the part?" The director reveals that she, along with writer Bhavani Iyer, had Bhatt in mind while giving shape to Sehmat, the protagonist of Raazi. "Even before we had put down a single word on paper, we knew it was her. This is also the first time in her career that Alia agreed to do a film where the script wasn't ready. I gave her a 10-minute narration of the premise. At that time, all I wanted was an assurance from her that I could write the story with her in mind," she says.