Filmmaker Major Ravi, SM (Retd), served the Indian Army before entering the world of films and directing several projects, including the 2008 film Kurukshetra. The only southern-Indian language film with the India-Pakistan Kargil War at its core, it starred Mohanlal as Colonel Mahadevan.

Unlike most films about the war, Kurukshetra was shot in Dras, Kargil. A huge unit was taken from Kerala to shoot in tough weather conditions and low oxygen levels but the film’s hero Mohanlal didn’t show signs of any weakness, recalls Ravi.

“Many junior artistes had come from Kerala to play soldiers. The entire crew fainted at a few places because the oxygen levels were very low. But Mohanlal never collapsed — he was, in fact, the first one to run during action scenes, amongst other soldiers. He would overtake everyone, he had that stamina. We were both commandos as well as artistes in and out,” says Ravi, who has directed the actor in several films such as Keerthi Chakra (2006) and Kandahar (2010).

For Ravi, who was also posted near the Line of Control from 1988 to 1992, the understanding of the area came in handy at several places. He shot in real locations to give viewers a feel of what the Kargil War was for the soldiers. As part of his two-year posting in Kargil, he served as an undercover intelligence officer.

“I knew the place like the back of my hand, like, kahan khade hone se the Pakistanis could see us and from where they could not. This place from where we were shooting, I could see Tiger Hill and even the Kargil artillery firing range. It was off Kargil, off the airfield, where we could fire weapons. I knew that we could shoot scenes there. So, it was very easy to shoot for me,” he says.

Ravi remembers a scene in Kurukshetra (2008) that got a roaring response from the audience: “During every war be it 1971 or anything, the government used to give an order that after the war, you retreat to wherever we were posted as status quo. But that changed during the Kargil War. I have put a scene in my film where the Prime Minister says, ‘Colonel sahab, main Bharat ka Pradhanmantri bol raha hoon. Jahan aap khade hain, wo aapki zameen hai. Wahin pe gaad do jhanda.’ The kind of roar that was there in the theatre when this dialogue came on was tremendous!” He feels that the film, which is only in Malayalam, was restricted to a much smaller audience then, and “would do very well on OTT”.