On Kargil Vijay Diwas, we look at how Bollywood captured the Kargil war, and why most of these films didn’t make an impact
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; July 26, 2020)

This Kargil Vijay Diwas marks 21 years since the Kargil war. While Bollywood made films on the war in the early 2000s, there hasn’t been any film on it recently, till Shershaah (starring Sidharth Malhotra), based on Kargil war hero Captain Vikram Batra, and Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (starring Janhvi Kapoor), based on Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena, the first woman Indian Air Force officer to enter a war zone. However, the earlier films didn’t do very well at the box office. Experts say that the reason behind this is that the Kargil war was the first televised war in India, and its memories were too strong back then, which those films failed to capture.

‘KARGIL MEMORY WAS TOO FRESH IN EARLY 2000S, WHICH FILMS COULDN’T CAPTURE’
Gautam Chintamani, a film historian, says, “There was more ‘drama’ in the real-life stories than what was translated on screen. People saw Kargil stories in a 24-hour news cycle. Films such as L.O.C Kargil (2003) had too many sub-plots, which failed to find takers. After the film didn’t do well, not many Bollywood producers took up a Kargil war story.”

After films like LOC Kargil (2003), Stumped (2003), Dhoop (2003) and Lakshya (2004), not many films on the war were made. Gautam says, “The real-life stories that inspired Lakshya had far too much drama. The film lacked suspense. Before the interval, Hrithik’s character goes through a transformation, and you know the story that will follow. The same thing happened with Stumped – which has the backdrop of an India-Pakistan cricket match around the time of the war. That drama also failed to translate on screen.” Gautam adds, “Somewhere, producers must have felt the war’s memories were still fresh. Twenty years later, there’s more interest in the stories. However, Gunjan Saxena’s story might have worked even then.”

One of the major Kargil-based films was J P Dutta’s 4-hour-15-minute multi-starrer L.O.C. Kargil, which didn’t do too well. In an interview, Dutta said that one reason could be that India wasn’t ready for a docu-drama of that kind.

Dhoop, based on the aftermath of the war, was inspired by Captain Anuj Nayyar’s story. Ashwini Chaudhary, who directed the film, says, “India doesn’t have many war films because fortunately, India hasn’t seen many wars. I think the reason why there haven’t been many films on the Kargil war is also because the war’s memories were fresh back then. Two decades later, more films are releasing. Generally, Army ke log yeh sochte hain ki hum film wale unki stories ko commercially exploit karte hain. Also, for a filmmaker, it is dangerous in a way that his film on such a prominent war should not be used by those in power as a tool, so all these factors have been there while making these films.”