Nearly three decades after its release, Border remains more than a war film — for many Indians, it is an Independence Day ritual. As the 1997 classic continues to find new audiences across generations, filmmaker J P Dutta looks back at the emotion that made the film endure, his deeply personal understanding of patriotism, and the responsibility of cinema to keep the stories of India’s soldiers alive.

I think people return to Border because the film carries an emotion that resonated deeply with them. Somewhere along the way, it stopped belonging to just one generation. Parents showed it to their children, those children grew up and showed it to theirs, and the emotion was strong enough to travel from one generation to the next. I don’t think it is about saying that today’s cinema has lost something or that patriotic films today are any less sincere. Every filmmaker has their own narrative and way of telling a story. Perhaps Border simply touched a certain place in people’s hearts and stayed with them. They remember the battles, the songs and the dialogues, but ultimately, I think they still remember how the film made them feel.

Times have changed, and naturally the way patriotism is expressed in cinema has changed too. But I don’t believe its fundamental meaning or feeling can ever change. For me, patriotism was never about aggression; it was about pride, sacrifice and duty. It was about a young man standing at the border, knowing his family was hundreds of kilometres away, yet choosing to protect something larger than himself. That is what our soldiers have always done, and I felt that emotion needed to reach every home. Cinema was the medium through which I could do that. I come from an Armed Forces background. Many of my cousins and uncles served, and my younger brother was also in the forces. So, I have seen and understood that sacrifice closely. That is why, for me, whether then or today, the emotion and meaning of patriotism remain the same. If I were making Border today, it would perhaps be technically different because I would have access to more technology. But the language, narrative and, most importantly, the emotion would remain exactly the same. Emotionally, I would not change the film if I were to make it today. That is where patriotism lives for me.

If Border has become a film families watch together every Independence Day, I don’t think that trivializes the sacrifice. In many homes, the soldiers depicted in the film have become almost household names. Generation after generation knows their stories - who Bhairon Singh was, who Kuldeep Singh Chandpuri was, and for me, that itself is a triumph. I don’t see it as the trauma of war being turned into entertainment. Cinema is a medium, and I used it to tell the story of these men. It has been almost 29 years, and I can only hope that 29 years from today, another generation will still be watching Border and remembering the soldiers. The film has immortalized those soldiers forever. And, somewhere, I think it has given me a little immortality too.