‘Our Team Collected 5,000 Pages Of Research Notes Before Writing The Film’

Janhvi Kapoor plays an air force officer in the film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, directed by Sharan Sharma. In a conversation with Lachmi Deb Roy, they talk about the making of the film.

How was the experience of meeting Gunjan Saxena? Janhvi, how did you prepare for the role?

Janhvi: I had to get fit for the role, so there was a lot of fitness training—obstacle course training, march pasts and weightlifting—but most importantly, I tried to understand Gunjan’s outlook and how she led her life. I tried to represent her life as accurately as possible. I went to Jamnagar, where her husband is posted; that’s when I met her for the first time. She was quite modest in describing her life and achievements. I asked her how tough it was being a lady officer in the air force, to which she replied, “My dream was to fly and it was as tough as for the person beside me. I just did my job.” In doing her job, she broke the glass ceiling and paved the way for many people.

Sharan: Meeting Gunjan was a game changer in terms of understanding her. The conviction with which she chased her dream of flying is quite appealing. Since Gunjan was trusting a first-time filmmaker with her life, without asking me to portray things in a certain way, it was my responsibility to depict her life authentically and honestly. I didn’t want her to feel embarrassed about the film. Even before we wrote the script, a year of research, if not more, went into it. There were about 5,000 pages of notes before we started writing. In the end, we had so much material that the difficult part was to decide what to leave out.

Which scene in the movie is your favourite?

Janhvi: The scene where she comes back from the Kargil war and meets her father at the station. That is my favourite because I shot it after we completed filming. And in between, I completed two films. When I went back to shoot that scene, I missed being on Gunjan’s set and wearing that uniform. I missed Anup Saxena (Gunjan’s father, played by Pankaj Tripathi).

What inspired you to make a movie on a lady officer?

Sharan: I stumbled upon this idea when I read an article mentioning Gunjan Saxena. It said that she was 24 years old at the time of the Kargil war. I had little information, but it appealed to me. I wanted to do this film, but was sceptical because I have not been exposed to the world of the armed forces. After talking to Gunjan for seven hours, I understood her outlook on life, the dreamer in her, her family dynamics and how progressive her father was. When I left her home, I found myself in her world. Just the way she had this dream of becoming a pilot, at that age, I too had the dream of becoming a cricketer. It didn’t happen, but I know that feeling. Like any other biopic, we did take a few cinematic liberties because it is not a documentary—it shouldn’t feel like a Wikipedia page.

How was it to play a lady officer?

Janhvi: I jumped when the role was offered to me as it presented opportunities to learn a lot. I enjoy watching war movies. I trained for about 45 days for the role. Had I not done this film, where else would I have got the opportunity to do such adventurous things? As gruelling as it was, I enjoyed every bit of it because we had a great team.

How was your experience of working with Pankaj Tripathi?

Janhvi: He is a lot of fun to work with. He makes every actor on set feel comfortable with his warmth and down-to-earth nature. And most importantly, he is flawless when it comes to the craft of acting. The way Gunjan idolises his character in the film, that’s how I feel about Pankaj Tripathi.