Karan Johar's Long-Gestating Film on R&AW Founder R.N. Kao Finally Gets a Release Date

Filmmaker Karan Johar has officially announced a feature film on Rameshwar Nath Kao, the founder of India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), setting a theatrical release date of August 11, 2028.

The announcement, made on September 21, 2026, was timed deliberately: it marks 58 years since R&AW’s founding, and the 2028 release date will coincide with the agency completing 60 years, landing on the Independence Day weekend that year. Sharing the news on social media, Johar called Kao “The Man, The Myth, The Legend,” writing that Kao “led India to an unprecedented win in the 1971 War against Pakistan,” and framed the project as telling “the story of R&AW, its founder and the first ever mission” on screen.

The film is a Dharma Productions venture made in collaboration with Leo Media Collective, and is based on journalist and author Nitin Gokhale’s book R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster. Producers named alongside Johar include Adar Poonawalla, Apoorva Mehta and Amritpal Singh Bindra, with filmmaker Anand Tiwari attached to direct and Marijke DeSouza and Dimple Mathias also on board. Cast details have not yet been revealed.

Kao, who joined the Imperial Police Service in 1940 and went on to found R&AW in 1968, is regarded as one of India’s most consequential and least publicly visible intelligence figures. He is widely credited with building the agency’s early operational culture and recruiting specialists outside conventional government channels. The film is expected to focus on the period from the mid-1950s through 1971, covering the lead-up to R&AW’s formation and its intelligence role during the Bangladesh Liberation War — a period historical accounts tie closely to India’s efforts in gathering intelligence on East Pakistan and coordinating support for the liberation movement.

Notably, this isn’t a brand-new idea: Johar had first announced his intention to make a film on Kao back in 2020, and the project has clearly been in development for years since. Dharma Productions’ statement describes Leo Media as having spent two years “painstakingly researching and dramatising this narrative,” with Johar adding that the aim is “a gripping story based on true facts to pay homage to RAW and honour their milestone year with a solid motion picture.”

The Kao biopic joins a growing wave of Hindi films built around real-life intelligence and military figures — a genre that has included titles like Raazi, Kesari, and Kesari: Chapter 2 — and adds another entry to Johar’s recent slate of stories drawn from historical personalities and events, marking his most ambitious foray yet into the espionage-thriller space.

With a release date locked in nearly two years out, further details on casting, the director’s full vision, and production timelines are expected to emerge as the project moves out of development.