In Prahaar, the courtroom drama built around the 26/11 Mumbai attacks trial, Sikandar Kher plays Abbas Kazmi—the lawyer who agreed to defend Ajmal Kasab when much of the legal establishment turned away. In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Kher said he took an unusual preparation step: before filming, he asked director Avinash Arun to arrange a meeting with the real Kazmi. What passed between them, he insisted, will stay between them.
Meeting the man, not the headlines
Kher said he did not approach Kazmi to ask why he took up Kasab’s defence—the question that dominated public debate after the attacks. Instead, he wanted to observe the person behind the controversy, and to move his performance away from the villain the trailers appeared to promise.
“We had a great conversation, but it will always remain personal,” Kher told the publication.
He said he had learned that the Bar Council of India had agreed that no one would defend Kasab, yet Kazmi went against that directive. That detail, for Kher, made the lawyer almost unbelievable in the Indian context.
Why the film keeps Kazmi human
Kher recounted that Kazmi was ostracised by his own community, and that chants of “Hang Kazmi” once ran alongside “Hang Kasab”. The film, he said, keeps those silences and internal conflicts rather than flattening the lawyer into a conventional antagonist.
He pointed to a scene in which Kazmi asks the young witness to show the wound at the back of her head to the court. On paper it is cross-examination; in the room, Kher said, it is also a human being looking at a child who may carry the trauma for life. Kazmi asks the question, Kher suggested, because there is nothing else he can ask her.
Beneath the conflict, Kher sees a constitutional stake: India chose to give even Kasab a defence before sentencing, and Kazmi’s role was part of that democratic demonstration.
- The request: Kher asked Avinash Arun to meet the real Abbas Kazmi before filming.
- The boundary: He did not ask why Kazmi took the case, and has kept the conversation private.
- The film’s choice: Kazmi is shown as conflicted, isolated, and human rather than villainous.
Working with the ensemble, and what next
Kher credited the director for the set’s collaborative energy and praised Rajkummar Rao, who plays prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, and Lalit Prabhakar, who plays Kasab. He said Prabhakar “nailed” the role completely, and that the actors worked by listening to one another rather than imposing a reading.
His release calendar continues: Chaar Yaar began streaming on Amazon Prime Video on October 23, and he has finished shooting the second season of Dahaad. Asked about his October 31 birthday, Kher said he would most likely be working—which, he added, is his preferred way to spend it.
The interview is a reminder that the most difficult real-life figures reward the same restraint their screen portrayals demand: observing the person closely, and refusing to reduce a life to a single public act.
Source: Bollywood Hungama
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