Director Vishnu Varadhan took an early flight from Delhi to Chennai the day after the family of Captain Vikram Batra, PVC and officials from the armed forces watched Shershaah at a special screening. Reliving the experience of putting the film together, which is releasing on Amazon Prime Video today, he says, “I didn’t get into this film with a preset notion of what I wanted to say. For six months, writer Sandeep Shrivastava and I travelled extensively to conduct our own research for the film. We met Captain Vikram Batra’s family, his friends and fellow officers and more, and gathered all the information we possibly needed to put pen to paper. The idea was to deliver a story which is true to the man’s emotions and is raw and real. When the army officials and Captain Vikram Batra’s father lauded what they saw in the film, I felt we had done our job well.”

Sidharth Malhotra plays Captain Vikram Batra, who was martyred in the 1999 Kargil War. While the actor has been praising the director for his approach to the film, Vishnu believes that it was the effort of his entire star cast that has been instrumental in the way the film has turned out. “Kiara and Sidharth travelled with me when we were researching. Kiara also met Dimple Cheema and had a long chat with her. Sidharth met the Batras, especially Vishal Batra, Captain Vikram Batra’s identical twin. They made their own notes about what they wanted to bring to the table. We were on the same page about not imitating Vikram and Dimple. Instead, we decided to go with the emotions of these characters and play them out appropriately,” he shares.

The film, jointly produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Kaash Entertainment, was shot in Kargil, Palampur and parts of Chandigarh — all the locations where Captain Vikram Batra had once set foot in. Talking about it, Vishnu says, “Probably these things don’t matter to an audience, but they matter to us. It’s a mark of our sincerity towards the story and we’ve turned the locations into credible characters. They are not mere places where an action is taking place. It was overwhelming to revisit Palampur where Captain Vikram Batra grew up and where his final procession took place, the Rock Garden in Chandigarh and all the spots in Kargil where he had been during the war. It’s unbelievable that we even got a chance to shoot in Kargil at 12000 to 14000 ft above sea-level. I could write a book about shooting the film in Kargil. It was scary and yet, something that left us all overwhelmed. I am thankful for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The process of making this film has changed my perspective towards life forever and what the armed officials do for us every day of our lives.”