UNIFORMS IN BOLLYWOOD

As India celebrates Armed Forces Week, we look at the slew of Bollywood films with fauji themes now under production

The fauji has long been a part of Hindi cinema — from Haqeeqat (1964) to Border (1997) to Lakshya (2004) to The Ghazi Attack this year, viewers have looked with pride upon the men and women in uniform. In this context, as India celebrates Armed Forces Week (Dec 1-7), it’s interesting to note that a number of Hindi films pivoted on the armed forces or defence personnel are being made.

Parmanu, starring John Abraham and Diana Penty, is about the nuclear tests at the Indian Army’s Pokhran Test Range in May 1998. Aiyaary takes a look at the story of two Army officers: a mentor and his protégé. Paltan, by JP Dutta, is a war drama based on the Indo-China War of 1962.

“When we talk about films related to the armed forces, it’s not just about wars but also about human beings. There’s great human drama, plus there’s the patriotism angle. That’s why it always makes for a gripping storyline,” says trade analyst Komal Nahta.

Other defence-related films in various stages of planning include Karan Johar’s biopic on India’s first woman combat aviator, Gunjan Saxena, who flew into the war zone during the Kargil War in 1999; and a film on Operation Khukri, in Sierra Leone in 2000, that Shah Rukh Khan is considering. This operation was one of the most successful international missions of Indian soldiers.

“The armed forces are the symbol of the purest emotions vis-à-vis love for our country,” says filmmaker Abhishek Sharma. Actor Akshay Kumar, whose father was in the Army and who has himself played a soldier, stars in Karan Johar’s Kesari, based on the Battle of Saragarhi, between the Sikh soldiers of the British Indian Army and Pashtun tribesmen in the 1890s. Akshay, who has always been vocal in his praise for the Army, feels that society needs to give back more to the forces.

Everyone should be proactive towards the armed forces, whether connected to them or not AKSHAY KUMAR ACTOR

Manoj Bajpayee (left) and Sidharth Malhotra in Aiyaary

Shah Rukh Khan in the TV show Fauji from the 1980s

John Abraham in Parmanu