The problem with Smita is that she asks a question and doesn't let her guest finish the whole answer. It just kills the charm of the podcast. I really hope that ANI team conveys this to her.

The way he sidelined the question how he got recruited in RAW😎 Legend 🇮🇳

Incredible interviews with such immensely intelligent people.

Only near perfect depiction of an Intelligence Officer by Bollywood is of Srikant Tiwari, played by Manoj Bajpai. My Uncle was in Intelligence and i came to know about his profession when he took VRS, 4 years prior to his actual retirement age. All this long my father also knew about his profession, but he chose to respect his profession by remaining silent about it and not discussing with any family member! These are our Unsung Heroes 👏🏻❤️

My god. I can just keep listening to Vikram Sood forever. Being in such a hostile work environment he is still So calm and composed

This man is such spot on! His very presence,the refinement, pragmatism and demeanor reflects in parts of his training.. is a pleasure to absorb. Much respect to him.

What an inspiring interview ! Blown away, Sir 🙏🇮🇳. Have also been acutely aware of the sacrifices made by you all, behind the scenes, to keep us citizens safe. And have been deeply grateful for it. To hear it first hand & that too in such a humble way is overwhelming. My salute🫡

RN Kao , Ajit doval, Vikram sood .people like these deserve biopic webseries like family man

We spies are known for our failures, this is truly hard hitting fact THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICES TO ALL OUR INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS 🇮🇳 Jai Hind

What a disciplined man ! His body language, his vocabulary, the way he diplomatically answerd questions . Hats off to this gentleman

I was around 10/12 years old when Mr Kao came to our house for dinner sometime between 1958/ 1960. My father was a scientist working for GoI and also working on couple of defence related projects. I had no idea who he was, till my father mentioned him much much later in my life. That day of the dinner, for the 1st time in my life, I saw someone eating curds with sugar. Mr Kao saw the surprise on my face and told me a story, which I remember even today. It was much later, I realised the man I had seen and heard that day was such an important person in GoI.

Love this man ... we can sense in his voice how the previous government was suppressing our intelligence agency, lack of action, and lack of willpower.

What an awesome gentleman you have interviewed.Knows his job, is articulate, and has tremendous finesse. India has talent, and they go right up to the top.

I respect you even more SIR for saying.. we are NOT the same people.. between India and Pakistan. We have totally opposite mindsets.

The clarity of mind in spite of being in such pressure cooker situations all his life...👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼. Thank you and your family sir, for the selfless service and sacrifices you and your family have done for our country ❤️❤️

"No, I haven't," broken my heart. We never forget the fallen souls in foreign lands for the nation.

Admire him a lot!! Back 2014 he then told we have to look forward beyond Pakistan!! We are in capabilities to deal China and US!! Thanks to him for his service .. infinity!!❤

Thank you for interviewing him... loved the way he answers and how he puts the nation first by not even taking a single credit. Hats off, sir. Thanks for the service to our motherland❤

Everyone who have interest in National Security and Geopolitics should read a superb book written by him on Narrative building - The Ultimate Goal

I am speechless hearing this interview. The amount of sacrifice and courage taken by such officers would remain unknown to Aam Janata. Thanking every such courageous intelligent officer who make our lives so safe and protected. Thank you Smitha Prakash for doing this interview. There is so much in the mind but not able to express the feelings for these great men and their families.

I feel contribution of spies in any country is highly under recognized. Even a soldier gets recognition but a spy, we don't even know their names. They live an die in anonymity. Good interview, refreshingly done

Sir rembers everything accurately 😮 I m proud of you sir and all our spies and raw and all the ones who are protecting our country

I've read half of the book, "The Unending Game". I want to finish it and then read "The Ultimate Goal" asap. I'm so happy ANI invited him for a podcast. Thank you very much for this episode. 🙏🏽

Wow, what a podcast. It's very rare in my life that I watch such a long podcast without deviating my mind even for a bit. It's very thoughtful and engaging. Kudos to the host too..

I never saw Smitha maam so excited about conversations, she is excited like a 4 or 6-year-old, btw great podcast really loved it ❤️

Every Patriotic True Indian must watch this interview. Salutes to Vikram Sir, for this gallantry and committed services and sacrifices to our country. Also, salutes to all those great unknown Agents who are risking their lives to save our country.

Damn! This was almost 2 hrs and I didn't even bat an eye! What a segment this has been. Kudos to Smita jee and ofcourse the very revered Mr. Sood. 👏 👏 Thank you for such an episode!

Cerebral, discrete, thoughtful. The hallmarks of a brilliant spymaster. Great interview.

Such interviews are first hand information to young aspirants as well as enthusiasts to know the system and the people who mould it to work to get desired results.

What an interview...thanks for uploading ❤

Vikram sir is a gem of a person to talk to when it comes to National security and IR.

One of my most liked interview.What a personality is Mr Sood.He is so clear headed, grounded and a practical officer.A model for young officers .A sauve and wonderful human being at a ripe age of 80.

Excellent gentleman who spoke of difficulties of job he did while we can not imagine hazards of his job. The competence of people in chain of connection makes difference.

Great talk. Superb. Smita I wonder, if you noted the pain in Mr Sood Sir's eyes when he spoke about the operative,who didn't return and that part. Great, captivating and informative interview.❤

_"Most powerful countries will get their way by any means necessary"_ is one of the most accurate sentences said in history. 🇮🇳🚩

I would let him complete the stories and make this podcast 6 hours long.

Remember telling a friend of mine about him (that he's an ex-RAW Chief and an author). She got really excited because of this notion of a hunk, handsome spy with a chiseled jawline based on our movies. Clearly dissatisfied after a quick google search of his pictures, she quips "But he doesn't even look like a spy". Smiling, I said to myself, "Well, that's why he IS one."

Such a pleasure to listen to him, a real hero for all patriotic Indians. At the same time, if you think of the cowardice demonstrated by some of our past PMs and politicians it makes our blood boil.

This type of discussion should be each month.truth is truth no body cant ignore this.this is pure truth... Thanks both of you.

Salute to all these officers who worked tirelessly for the country 😊🙏

Omg 😮 you guys got VIKRAM SOOD on the podcast 👏🏼. Super excited to watch this conversation.

Truely inspired with the mindset, the work, the aura and the thought to explore in right terms. 🙏🙏

This is one of the best podcasts ever. The jovial nature of Smita Prakash is the key in getting answers from the secret service agent Mr.Sood. Smita nailed all the right questions, is well read before the interview and is a charm to watch. Kudos to both of them. Jai Hind.

Man, I never saw any journalist who is so smart. I thought ANI had only jokers. Smita, ma'am, you are simply amazing. And what can I say about Vikram, sir? He is the best we had. My dad served Indian Army for over 35 years. I know what it feels like to have someone on the front. Unfortunately, Indians do not respect their soldiers enough.

Having said that, THANK YOU for bringing eminent guests like Mr Kulkarni sir, Mr Sood sir and many more

A wonderful & Well conducted interview which brought out the best in Mr.Sood.Thank you 👍

It is always a pleasure to listen to Mr. Vikram Sood giving insights from his vast experience as a spymaster. One wishes that Smita Prakash will refrain from interrupting her guests before they finish a particular response.

Thoroughly enjoyed watching. A big salute to Sood Sir for serving India with honor and dignity as evident from the interview. Jai Hind !🙏🙏

every interview I listen to, tells me how many toil to keep us safe and how much proud we must be to belong to our country

What a great person. So sharp, so witty and so matured. Why do we retire people like him, when he can contribute so much more to the country and some politicians who can't , continue well past their eighties!?

A Huge Salute to Vikram Sir

Smita Prakash, please let the guest finish his thoughts before jumping to the next question. Please don't interrupt him. Thanks for this great interview.

Quite intriguing to watch a R&AW officer and chief sharing his job life. More such series about our unsung and unknown heroes need to be done. Thanks ANI for showing this. Jai Hind Vikram Sir.

Movies etc ..aside a real person's account of how things work from his point and experience in his own words ,is so exhilarating ! Thank you for this amazing , officer and gentleman's interview!

Best podcast I have ever seen 😍 thanks smitha for your true journalism and salute to Vikram Sir our hero's who protect our nation without bothering about any appreciation in the line of duty. We are ready to sacrifice our lives when the nation will call us to defend anytime, anywhere. Akanda Bharat. Jai Hind 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

Also props to actual journalists like Smita..she does her research and is quite knowledgeable about things. Last of a dying breed. The third rate howling/hooting monkeys that get called "journalists" seem to be spreading like cancer these days.

Every single podcast , banger after banger after banger , absolute gifts out here , all of these inspiring people finally getting the big platforms to tell us these stories , ma'am , your reach due to media combined with podcasting was literally the best combination ever.

We lost so many young men in kargil….deep respects to our heroes 🙏🏿🙏🏿🇮🇳

What a great podcast! Smithaji asked the appropriate questions and MrSood's calm and experienced reply was really interesting.

Big salute to you Sir. It's sad that politicians have no knowledge of the dangers to the country. Today v r blessed.

Books to read if you are interested in understanding the functioning of RAW. 1. R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster. 2. The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane- B.Raman. 3. A Life in the Shadows: A Memoir- A.S. Dulat 4. RAW: A History of India's Covert Operations 5.Khalistan Conspiracy. And of course Vikram Sood's books.

Just loved this show Huge Respect for Vikram Sood Sir🇮🇳❤️🙏🙏🙏 Love To Watch Smita Mam with her Podcast ❤️👏

This was just brilliant! Vikram sir was the first person from whom I got to hear about the real R&AW.

Under the RAW, theTibetan SFF(Special Frontier Force) Battalion was used and did great job for India. India should not forget this.

It's such a wonderful to watch and study Vikram sirs body language, facial expressions, tonality. Always smiling, cool, not getting angry, knows what to answer and what to leave.

I’ve never had the pleasure of interacting with my Grandfather. But this podcast is like talking to your granpa about the adventures & adversities he had been through over the decades for his family. This is so insightful Smita ji. Thank you very much for adapting to the evolving trend that is podcast which often isn’t scripted & is spontaneous, witty & entertaining. Looking forward to many more episodes ! Thank you sir for your service to the nation 🙏🏻

These people are unsung heroes!My heart felt salute to these great heroes and true sons of india in addition to our great brave soldiers!

13:28 Lahore bus yatra happened even after getting intelligence input because that single incident changed the western view of the J & K issue. We went for peace, and they came with war. Before 1999, everyone was putting pressure on India to do something about the kashmir issue, and after 1999, no one interfered.

Highly appreciated shri vikram sood sir, and thank you for bringing him as a guest on your show, awesome! Incredible man with magnetic persona. Wishing you all the very best for all future endeavours , keep it up. Jai Hind 🇮🇳

👏👏👏I request to show such interviews in hindi so that it can reach to more and more people.

One of the most enriching interviews . Congrats Smitha mam for getting him on to here .

What a personality he is ❤

Late B Raman was a great spy master and CI CT expert. I did read Sri Sood's obituary on Raman saheb. Mr Raman followed only 35 people on Twitter and I was one of them.. I am grateful to Sri Sood

One of the finest conversations by Smitha Ji @ ANI News with a 'soldier-and-a-saint'-like soul. Thanks a bunch. Lot of lessons from this 'meaningful' conversation for the individual,family,nation and the universe. as well. Grateful!

Thank you Smitha for the Podcast. Salute to Chief Vikram Sood.

Outstanding interview by Smita Prakash ji.

One of the best podcast. Thank you Smita Ma'am and Team ANI! Sood Sir = Legend Ultra Pro Max

Amazing episode ! The Host Smita Mam doesn't hesitate to ask any question which comes to her mind. Also few questions which cooks into our mind while watching the episode ultimately gets asked by Mam thus resolving our query. This is how a Podcast should be like where the Host has got knowledge about the questions and its background of what she is asking. Others should learn from Mam the way to conduct a Podcast. Thank you Mam !

Amazing stuff from ex top spy in chief and such intelligent questions put up. Smita Prakash,you are one brilliant journalist. Keep it up 😊

One of my uncle worked in survey authority of India, now called as survey of India, later we came to know that he actually worked for an intelligence agency, my father was serving in a infantry regiment posted in shillong, we come to chennai once a year, both are good guitarist, when ever we ask our uncle on why he never come to shillong, he always say that he was in nepal, sikkim, Assam, once he went to vietnam on a official trip, we used to make fun of him saying, are you are in the army or border roads., What kind of job is that, he always say that I am just a poor fellow who create maps. Times passed, the truth came when one of my fathers friend who served in IPKF in srilanka, recognised him saying that he seen this person in palaly airfield, Jaffna where he was actually looking for jawans who speak tamils, those days the Madras regiment soldiers were sent back to India on request from srilankan president fearing that these south indian soldiers may not fight against tamils and end up in revolt and replaced with GR and Sikh li, anyways, My father told him that he worked for survey of india, both smiled and left, another incident I am not sure wheather to write., I hope this gentlemen reads this, during my trip to a place called sakleshpur in karnataka in a small resort, he introduced as the owner of the resort, spent time with this wonderful gentlemen with a veteran physique, told me that he worked for survey of india., Thats the second time in my life I heard the name survey of india, his last posting was in China border, he said that he claimed mount Everest along with the Indian army mountaineers and came in news paper also., I leave it upto you guys to decide. these are some of the shady organisations we never know, not sure wheather he was a part of R&aw, but that's the one and only external agency in srilanka that time apart from Military intelligence headed by Col.Hariharan. some years back a lean Tamil guy from chennai in his 40s claimed he is typist and a transcriber who filed a case against the R&aw in chennai high court claiming that he worked for the intelligence agency and stopped getting salary for a long time and requested the high court to interfere. This one is more interesting.. a guy who claimed that he was a nsg and left the army on req from the agency got caught by the police for his connections with the underworld mafia and murder charges, spent years in jail later released.then became the body guard of the highest person in India., either he is from the army or from the capf..unlike we think, two groups are there in NSG..special ranger group who protects VIPs mainsy from capf and special action group deputed from the army who do ops and CT he mentioned that he is a soldier and he followed orders for the safety of our country, but his young life was lost in jail..later he joined para special forces and left. god only knows what happens to these good fellows. during ipkf, everybody knows that this ltte was trained by bsf and Indian army instructors and got trained in jungle warfare school, (must be cijws) after completion of training, the same agency sent the ltte cadres to Israel to get trained with Sayeret maktal, (simply called as "the UNIT" Israeli SAS)not mossad, a top special forces unit and got them all the advanced weapons from sabotage, Intel gathering, counter intelligence, radio patrol, interrogation with jungle warefare capabilities, they became force multiplier and trained thousands in the same way. Our ipkf jawans and crpf personal were no match for those highly trained and motivated ltte cadres except few para units, but still those para battalions were wiped out by ltte during the helidrop in Jaffna univ., Some say that Indian Marcos were successful in sabotaging a boat jetty, but before reaching the jetty their cover was blown up and they swam back to their base, there were reports that raw got them the latest modern radio interceptors to monitor Indian army radio traffic and movements of troops and iaf choppers and some said that raw was fighting along side ltte against the army, all the army movements were known to ltte, don't know who informed. the same agency who arranged the boats for the injured ltte cadres to Tamil Nadu to get treatment in govt hospitals and later they go back and fight against the ipkf, when the Indian Navy blocked the sea routes, ltte requested weapons to raw and that request was went to Delhi during the war, later medicines were sent by raw to ltte, not sure about the weapons and ammo, if there is any shipment of weapons sail from Thailand or from chennai port, the coast guard and the navy won't be there in that particular region, when an ltte shipment was caught by customs, the govt gave the order to release it.,remember all this were happening during the war and the worst part is when the ipkf soldiers went for an operation, they found that Raw agents were there advising the ltte, some soldiers lost the edge, heart broken came back to their base, whatever the reasons, Raw advise to srilanka, I am your elder bro, you stop getting closer to china and usa, both wants to have a base in that Island, if you don't follow my words , (exact words told by our govt to then sl high commissioner to india)we will create more forces like ltte to take care of you, don't forget ltte is the one and only org who had airforce, navy, suicide tigers and army and arty. if an agency like raw is able to create a force to keep our nation's interest just to keep china at bay. Must be an amazing agency, rest all history. Now ltte is gone, china is just 15 Nautical miles from Indian sea border., China has influence over Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burma, Nepal, except Bhutan we are surrounded.for more than 30 yrs we kept the dragon at bay, when twenty thousand srilankan soldiers were trapped by ltte in elephant pass camp and disabled their artillery destroyed the ammunition depo., ltte cut off the supply routes, when they were running out of supplies, it's the Indian govt req RAW to order their boys (ltte) to fall back so that the srilankan soldiers escape, it doesn't matter how good you do.,some countries will be always against india, I was amazed by the work of R&AW, even though the govt were not interested to provide a seperate Tamil eelam.,R&AW stood for what's right, some say that Indian stopped supporting ltte just because Tamil Nadu will became a seperate land., Its all bullshit claims..when the internal fight happened between sinhala govt and JVP terrorist org the rajabakshas..then Lankan president begged India to intervene, the same agency went in collected Intel and the iaf fly boys did the carpet bombing, several thousands of JVP were killed in forest, or they would have taken over govt just like happening now.,83 Tamil riots the order was given to the same agency to train and arm tamils, the cunning fox president Julia's jeyavardhane planned India to fight against ltte as ipkf..several raw officers declined saying that they can't fight with their own boys since they are the one who trained them., Bad things happen in war, just because of the two main units form Sikh li and gr, the whole ipkf got the bad name., Killings and dead bodies are normal in war, but those jawans went rogue, fearing if rajiv comes back..he promised to send troops, they took him out..finally, after 18 yrs we did share the radar technology to srilankan army and wiped the ltte..even though a section of raw were against it..they followed orders, It's a nasty world., all I am trying to say that the job is not always looks sexy and not all the time they recruit special forces to run the agency operations. The bitter truth is in this Nuclear world, No one is above us or no one below us, we did the balakot strike at night., but the retaliation came in broad day light with strikes at six locations and we ended up in shooting down our MI 17 helicopter, the army is crying out loud that they can't go on a battle with Indian made Arjun tanks and the armoured core is still reluctant to induct.,on the other hand the most required Air mobile units are still not there, we are still not the blue water navy, it's only the veterans, soldiers, Airmen, and the sailors knows the bitter truth. some still think that bsf, crpf,ssb, cisf, itbp are paramilitary forces, in reality , they are police forces. only coast guard, Assam rifles and the Special frontier force or establishment 22 are the only three paramilitary forces in India and another set of people believe that they can actually win a war with few Chinook, Apache gun ship, some Rafales and C130s. The same man once said that we are known for failures and sucess we don't talk about it., May God continue to bless and protect our unknown soldiers who serve our motherland.,I am not sure how many soldiers proudly say that they fought in srilanka., Most of the Tamil speaking soldiers never disclose that they went to srilanka just because of the attrocities carried out by Sikh Li and Gorkhas, sorry for my detailed explanation, these silent warriors have done many great things but never taken the credit, these things needs to be told. from saving Maldives, creation of Bangladesh, Annexation of sikkim, creation of Ltte, Base in Tajik, betrayed by their own in the beginning, their achievements were skyhigh and thank God all these were done in previous govt, you can't imagine if those things happen now.,gone are those days where bureaucrats, diplomats,foreign affairs and the defence agencies were A- political once., But it's a big question now. I am not an expert on any agency, got some free time and shared my views.

One of the Best Podcast I ever Enjoyed as a Nationalist...Pranams Shri Sood Ji ❤🙏🙏🙏🙏

Every 2 lines of story there is a diverted question to something else how people could understand. I love to hear him more

I saw this episode 2 times. His body language is amazing. No one could make out if he is telling lie or truth. He is well balanced in his words.

Wisdom and sense of responsibility should be the basis of reporting for journalists *and* citizens. Nice lesson.

Mr. Vikram Sood is one of the few Chiefs who had done a great operational job. He is closest to the great legend Shri R N Kao in his impeccable cool behavior and conduct.

@51:23, Mr. Sood's answer brought me to tears. I have seen this part at least 10 times. I found the expression genuine and truthful. Thank you for that question Ms. Smita Prakash, and Grateful to Mr. Sood (and the ilk), to feel for the "lost" spy.

Awesome and enlightening episode! It’s great to hear from our country’s heros. ❤

Smita ma'am tried so hard to extract more info but the legend did not fudge !! Hahaha excellent watch 😂😂😂 kudos to the ANI team

Remember people, such officers still exist and report to the Prime Minister and the PMO. When you go cast your vote, make sure you send someone there that's fit to work with such great minds. Don't let emotions amd media dictate your vote, competence, efficiency and having a vision should be the primary criteria for choosing our leaders. I hope the public will rise above stupid emotion driven politics. Running a nation isn't a Bollywood movie.

It was a classic experience watching this interview..Thank you..

The pain of people like Sood sir when they do not see the political will to retaliate despite so much of attacks on us common citizens and their own people from agencies is too horrible to imagine. He is correct, the political leadership needs to send a message loud and clear that ‘ghar mein ghuskar marenge’.

Very good interview. Well done Smita Prakash to have this episode with India's most talented Spy Vikram Sood.

Morarji Desai wasn't a patriot, he also got award from Pakistan if I'm not mistaken. People like him still exists in Indian political community.

Had it been any other country the then RAW chief AS Daulat would have been sacked the day a brigade level deployment was discovered inside Indian territory when over 200 Indian post were taken without being noticed .The Core commander and Battalion commander's of Kargil ,Drass region would have been court martialed for non performance of duty which resulted in loss of over 1500 troops . Their is no doubt about the exemplary courage shown by the troops who flushed enemy out but BJP in order to do its own " Face Saving " never fixed accountability. AS Daulat is the same person who jointly published a book with ISI chief named Spy Chronicles !! He also attended Bharat Jodo Yatra organized by Congress !! And their are not many admirer's of his role as intelligence officer during uprise of terrorism in Kashmir and Hindu Genocide yet he was intelligence Chief !!!

The agency facilitates an approach of practical, precise and relevant intel. I hold this opinion as the chief is grounded, has clarity of thought. I think he brings perspective to "intelligence" in all meaning. Such an under-celebrated agency yet aptly aware of logistical and operational challenges ( which may not be met with standard SOPs as they could defeat the purpose of unpredictability).

Incident of Morarji taking to Zia about Quetta makes me think , what if Pappu becomes PM some day and reveals critical information to enemy casually ( since he is self proclaimed Gandhi and believes in so called Ahimsa, which doesn't work in real world these days).... A good alarm for India's voters.

This has to be one of the best interviews of Mr. Sood on the internet. Thanks Smita ji.

Respectful salute to Sri Vikram Sood Ii and Smitha Ji as well for this fascinating interview. These interviews make us aware of amazing public servants and patriots who protected the honor of our pyara Bharat 🙏.

its a blockbuster kind of a podcast...Smitha Prakash Mam...ur one of those brightest minds from whom we should all try to learn ...thank you Sood Sir ...for everything that you have done for our countrymen.shaashtaang namaskaram

While watching this i just realised its not just me who is so excited or avid to know more, look at samita ji she seems so curious... amazing show!!