Filmmaker Aditya Dhar Talks About Why Uri Released Before The General Elections

In 2016, filmmaker Aditya Dhar was occupied by gearing up for his first film that starred Pakistani actor Fawad Khan as militants stormed the Uri Base Camp in Kashmir. Since New Delhi blamed its neighbor for this attack that killed seventeen soldiers, a lot of Bollywood producers claimed that they do not collaborate with Pakistani artists anymore, which caused the shelving of Aditya Dhar’s film project.

However, instead of wallowing, Aditya said that he opted for focusing on this event that followed, India’s reprisal in the context of the “surgical strike” through the borders which is said that it hit suspicious militants gearing up for infiltrating into the Indian-administered Kashmir.

His new movie “Uri: The Surgical Strike”, which is inspired by the true events, hit the cinemas on 11^th January. The movie is a defining moment in military history of India, which paved the way to the new and stronger India. Filmmaker Aditya Dhar had an interview with Reuters, in which he talked about the movie as well as how to turn one hindrance into something great.

According to Aditya Dhar, he had come up with an idea for the film after his movie named “Raat Baaki” starred Katrina Kaif and Raat Baaki had got shelved due to the Uri attack on 29^th September and the Pakistani actors were forbidden to work in India. He said,

Aditya Dhar expressed that he had always been interested in the army and he had wanted to be a part of it. The director added that he had known about terrorism when he was just a kid and we had also been victims of it directly or indirectly, therefore when he had known about the strike, he had desired to know the way the army handled this.

Answering the question about how much of the real story he is allowed to show on the big screen, Aditya Dhar said, “

He added that most characters are a combination of some people and he tried his best to tell an entire story about a hero in a 2-hour movie. According to the director, he had also collected some materials available in newspapers or met several retired army officers to ask them about this strike so that he could build a true story.

Aditya Dhar also admitted that it was ironic as the attack, which caused his directorial debut had been shelved, was a good reason to do another film. He said that this the way to survive in the film industry and instead of getting down by a failure, one had to keep moving forward.

Speaking about “Uri”, Aditya Dhar said that the movie was one dedication to Indian Army and it was all about their sacrifices for the people. He really appreciated what they had done for the countrymen and he believed that this was the least that a director like him could do for all soldiers.

When asked about how he feels about several commentary pieces saying that the movie led to jingoism, Aditya said he had no idea why people got into a lot of details,

He further added it was the army jawan, who was pulling the triggers on the borders, not him or anyone else and he needed to be motivated by his commanders by telling him that he was better than his enemies. The director also listed some other movies using that motivation including Ridley Scott movies, British movies and other American movies and said that why people did not question anything when they watched those movies but questioned this when this happened in one Indian movie.

Maybe this is because of the film release date, which is near the general elections but Aditya Dhar made it clear that the film’s release date had been decided long back by the producers and there were a lot of people who had worked in the movie so the producers had to defend their interest. He stated that the date that had also worked for them since 15^th January and 26^th January was Army Day and Republic Day, respectively so the whole country was already in that mood.

Talking about the involvement of the security forces and the army while making the movie, Aditya Dhar said that they had had one army counsellor to help them during the film making.

He further said that all actors had been well-trained by the army and when they had shown their complete product to the ADGPI, they had been so happy with it.