Who is this Gunjan Saxena that Janhvi Kapoor is playing in Kargil Girl? A look back at the events that inspired the biopic
The posters describe Gunjan Saxena as "India's first air force woman officer who went to war"
Long before women fighter pilots were commissioned into the Indian Air Force, Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena scripted history by venturing into a war zone, becoming the first Indian woman in combat.
Inspired by the story, Bollywood is making a biopic on Gunjan Saxena's journey. The film, titled 'Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl,' has Janhvi Kapoor play the fighter pilot.
In 1999, at the height of the Kargil War, two pilots, Kunjan and Srividya Rajan flew the Cheetah helicopters through an area where Pakistani soldiers fired missiles at virtually any Indian aircraft.
One of their missions was reconnaissance for which they often flew very close to Pakistani positions. The pilots in the Cheetah helicopter were also tasked with casualty evacuations.
The Kargil War took a toll on the Indian Forces and their resources. The IAF too, was banking on each and every pilot they had. War times imply desperate times, which in turn need desperate measures.
So while female pilots had not yet been employed in a war zone, the situation demanded for a change. Hence, the women pilots were called in for tasks of medical evacuation, and dropping of supplies.
“I could not wait to be called.” said Gunjan Saxena in an interview later in 2006.
In about ten sorties over the next week after training and enlisting of duties, Flight Officer Gunjan Saxena flew her chopper to air- drop vital supplies to Indian troops at high points.
In these journeys, she also picked up the wounded/dead bodies from steep and unruly mountain ranges which spoke volumes of her skills as a pilot.
Gunjan meticulously informed her seniors of the enemy positions and status which added to better strategies and ultimately contributed to the overall victory of the force’s operations.
Gunjan had only a loaded INSAS assault rifle and a revolver with her on the chopper in case she would have to battle her way out of the enemy’s areas on land (in case of a crash landing).
Her small Cheetah helicopter ran through extremely hostile territories in unpredictable and perilious weather conditions.
In a terrifying incident during one of her sorties, the Pakistani Army fired a rocket at Gunjan’s helicopter which was ready for take- off at the Kargil air- strip.
Kunjan's chopper just barely managed to escape the attack as the missile missed it and crashed into a hill behind it. Kunjan remained undaunted and did not let that hamper her protocol.
In the first look of the biopic, Janhvi features as a girl next door playing with a paper plane - She was told 'Ladkiyan pilot nahin banti', but she stood her ground and wanted to fly.
In the second one, Janhvi features in Gunjan Saxena's fighter avatar, who was later honoured with the Shaurya Vir award for displaying courage and grit during the war.
In another poster, Janhvi Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi, who plays Kunjan's father, can be seen embracing each other.
While Janhvi will play the adult version of Gunjan, child actor Riva Arora has been roped in to play the younger version of the celebrated pilot. Riva was earlier seen as Sridevi’s daughter in MOM.
The film is directed by Sharan Sharma, who shares writing credits with Nikhil Mehrotra. Hussain Dalal has been credited with additional dialogue writing.
The biopic which also stars Angad Bedi, Viineet Kumar, and Manav Vij, is bankrolled by Karan Johar and is set to release worldwide on March 13, 2020
