When Dharma Productions decided to drop all the credits from Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, their intent was quite clear. Karan Johar’s name was associated with the film and the makers wanted to stay away from any controversies surrounding nepotism debate in the industry. However, trouble seems to have duly followed the film as it gets criticised for its cinematic licenses and an alleged problematic portrayal of the Indian Air Force.
However, what one might not have expected here is that even Gunjan Saxena, the Kargil war hero on whose life the film has been made, has found herself in the eye of the storm along with Dharma Productions. Here’s everything that has happened so far.
Why Is The Film Receiving So Much Flak?
The film features montages of Gunjan Saxena struggling with sexism in the Indian Air Force as her flying sorties keep getting cancelled owing to the fact that she’s a woman. There’s also a scene when Gunjan is told off by her senior after he challenged her for arm-wrestling and told her that she was physically inferior. In the film, Gunjan’s brother who in the army has also been shown as quite a chauvinist who does not really believe in her dreams.
The portrayal has not gone well with the Indian Air Force. Objections have also been raised about the factual consistencies of the film and how things have been taken too far.
IAF’s Disapproval Of The Film
On August 12 when the film released, the Air Force wrote a letter to the censor board and also sent it to both Netflix and Dharma Productions raising objections to its “undue negative” portraiture in the film. “Dharma Productions had agreed to represent Indian Air Force (IAF) with authenticity and make all efforts to ensure that the film helps to inspire the next generation of IAF officers,” the letter read.
In the letter, IAF also pointed out that “certain scenes and dialogues in the movie and its trailer, which was forwarded to this office for viewing, have been found to portray the IAF in an undue negative light.”
It was further pointed out in the communication that, “In the aim to glorify the screen character of ‘Ex-Fit Lt Gunjan Saxena’, M/s Dharma Productions presented some situations that are misleading and portray an inappropriate work culture especially against women in the IAF.”
The Air Force expressed its disappointment in the fact that even after Karan Johar-owned Dharma Productions was informed about the objectionable portion of the movie and was advised to delete/modify them accordingly, no changes were really made to the film except a disclaimer in the movie.
Here’s What Gunjan Saxena’s Bacthmates Have To Say
Namrita Chandi and Sreevidya Rajan, two of Gunjan’s batchmates have heavily criticised the film as well. In an open letter, written for Outlook, Namrita Chandi wrote, “I have myself served as a helicopter pilot and I have never faced the kind of abuse and maltreatment as was portrayed in the movie. In fact, men in uniform are true gentlemen and professionals.”
She also had a message for the film’s lead Janhvi Kapoor and wrote “Lady, let me advice you, please, never again do a film of this kind if you are a proud Indian woman. Stop showcasing Indian professional women and men in such poor light.”
Namrita further insisted that both the movie and Gunjan’s portrayal in it have little to do with the reality and blamed the filmmakers for showing the Indian Air Force in poor light and “peddling lies.” She further added that “Sreevidya Rajan was the first lady pilot who flew to Kargil – not Gunjan. Though, I am certain that Sreevidya has no complaints about this credit being taken away from her.”
In fact, Sreevidya Rajan herself has also addressed the issue in a long Facebook post. Pointing out the factual inaccuracies of the film. In a lengthy note posted on her Facebook page, Sreevidya said that Gunjan and she trained together at the Air Force Academy and Helicopter Training School. “In the movie, Gunjan Saxena was shown as the only lady pilot to fly in Kargil operations. This is factually incorrect. We were posted together to Udhampur and when the Kargil conflict started, I was the first woman pilot to be sent along with the male counterparts in the first detachment of our unit which was deployed at Srinagar. I flew missions in the conflict area even before Gunjan’s arrival at Srinagar. After a few days of operation, Gunjan Saxena came to Srinagar with the next set of crew. We actively participated in all operations given to us which included casualty evacuation, supply drop, communication sorties, SAR, etc. The heroic acts of the protagonist portrayed in the climax never actually happened and may have been shown as part of the cinematic licence,” she wrote.
However, she did accept that there were initial hiccups when it came to how they were received by certain people in the Air Force and that there were actually no toilets in the base where they were initially posted. She also appreciated Gunjan for being a thorough professional but did express her disappointment in the fact that the latter did not do anything to ensure that the facts were taken care of in the film.
What Gunjan Saxena Has To Say About The Controversy
After all the controversies and everything that has been talked about, Gunjan has written a blog post for NDTV addressing the issue. She writes, “Let me inform readers with utmost conviction and honesty that even though cinematic liberties were exercised in my biopic by the filmmakers, what they did not miss or exaggerate was me, the real Gunjan Saxena. I admit without hesitation that I have even more of an iron will and resoluteness than was portrayed in the movie,” she wrote, adding that it ‘was absolutely disheartening to see a small group of people trying to dent this hard-earned reputation with nonsensical rants’.
“When I joined there was no discrimination at the organisational level. But yes, individually, no two people are the same and some individuals adapt to change better than others. Since the bias is not at an organisational level, the experiences of different woman officers would be different. To deny it completely speaks of a feudal mindset and undermines the grit of women officers. I also combated the difficulties of prejudice and discrimination at the hands of a few individuals for being a woman. But since it was never at the organisational level, I got equal opportunities all the time,” Gunjan further adds.
However, the Gunjan Saxena controversy aside, war films made in India have seldom strived for factual accuracy. And while a creative license needs to be taken in account here, there’s also a need to decide how much is too much. Also, can the Indian cinema do away with the exaggerated glorification of war heroes and sports icons in the cliched one-formula-fits-all films that we keep making? That’s a conversation for another day perhaps.
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