Karan Johar is bringing one of the significant chapters in India’s intelligence history to the big screen. Dharma Productions has announced a yet-untitled theatrical film on Rameshwar Nath Kao, the founder and first chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). Based on journalist and strategic-affairs analyst Nitin Gokhale’s 2019 book R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster, the film is scheduled to arrive in cinemas on August 11, 2028, during the Independence Day weekend.
The announcement comes on September 21, which marks 58 years since R&AW was established in 1968, with Rameshwar Nath Kao appointed as its founding chief. Rather than presenting a fictional spy adventure, the film will draw from Kao’s career and the formation of India’s external intelligence agency, offering a cinematic account of a figure whose work largely remained away from public attention.
The story is planned around a crucial 16-year period, beginning in 1955 and moving through 1971. It will trace the developments that established the need for a separate external intelligence organisation, the creation of R&AW in 1968 and its first major mission during the 1971 India-Pakistan War. The timeline allows the film to explore Kao’s career before R&AW existed while also showing how the organisation took shape under his leadership.
One of the notable details behind the project is the preparation that has already gone into it. According to Karan Johar, Leo Media Collective has spent two years researching and dramatising the narrative ahead of the announcement. The makers have said their intention is to build a gripping film rooted in true events, giving the project a foundation in research rather than relying solely on familiar spy-fiction formulas.
The source material adds another layer to the project. Nitin Gokhale’s R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster, published in 2019, chronicles Kao’s career and the formation of India’s external intelligence apparatus. The book provides the film with a documented starting point as it revisits the years that shaped one of the country’s most closely guarded institutions.
The August 11, 2028 release date also places the film within the Independence Day holiday window. The makers announced the date alongside the R&AW anniversary, connecting the organisation’s history with the film’s planned theatrical arrival.
Behind the project is a collaboration between Dharma Productions and Leo Media Collective. The partnership brings the two production companies together again following their earlier collaborations on Bad Newz and Kesari: Chapter 2.
The 1955 starting point gives the narrative an entry into Kao’s career before the agency he would eventually lead existed. It allows the film to explore the circumstances and intelligence work that preceded R&AW’s creation, while connecting the story to the first major mission highlighted by the makers.
Several details remain under wraps. The makers have not yet announced the director or cast, and the project remains in development. What is confirmed is that the film will span the period from 1955 to 1971, draw from Gokhale’s book and centre on R.N. Kao and the formation of R&AW.