Mumbai: Actor Emraan Hashmi says when he first heard about BSF officer Narendra Nath Dhar Dubey’s story, he realised that it was “stranger than fiction” and more filmy than any film.

Hashmi is portraying Dubey, the Border Security Force officer who led the operation to track the mastermind behind the 2001 terrorist attacks on the Parliament in New Delhi and Akshardham Temple in Gujarat, in the upcoming film “Ground Zero”.

Hashmi said Dubey’s story is extraordinary and more people should know about it. “There’s an old phrase that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and this phrase is appropriate for this film. I remember meeting Mr. Dubey, whose character I am portraying, for the first time. I remember telling him that his story is more filmy than a film. And it really is. Just like our brave BSF officers. The officer who all planned this and the encounter happened in 2003. It’s nothing short of extraordinary and unbelievable,” the actor told reporters at the trailer launch of the movie.

“Ground Zero” is co-produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment.

Hashmi said he was surprised that there is not much available about the operation in the media about what Dubey, who received the Kirti Chakra for his bravery, and his fellow officers achieved.

“But it was our good fortune that we got to show this story on the big screen. It makes a fabulous cinematic watch. It was a story waiting to be told. Of course, it’s got action, drama and thrills, but at the heart, it has an emotional human story and a story of sacrifice,” he said, adding that the operation, led by the BSF officers, destablised the infrastructure of the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.