Vicky Kaushal, dressed in indigo jeans and a military green tee, came running into The View at Andheri west. It is a preview theatre opposite Yash Raj Studios. I had just watched him running in the gritty and action-blazing trailer of Aditya Dhar’s film Uri: The Surgical Strike. He was late for the screening. But what could he do? A truck had broken down on the Andheri Link Road. Traffic was held up for miles. He left his car to the driver and ran to The View. Not a drop of sweat. No sign of exhaustion. I think the physical training and conditioning for his commando’s role in the film has made him supremely fit.
Vicky plays the leader of a Special Forces unit that led the Indian surgical strike on base camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir of militants preparing to infiltrate and spread terror in J&K. The attack was a swift and sudden retribution sanctioned by an outraged Indian government for the September 18, 2016 pre-dawn attack in Uri by Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists on an Indian Army brigade headquarters near the LoC.
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It killed 17 soldiers and injured about 30. Eleven days later, the Indian Army hit back. It sent small teams of commandos across the LoC. Also in a pre-dawn raid, they struck at the safe houses of the militants and killed dozens. “They went at midnight and were back by 7 am,” revealed Vicky. Uri: The Surgical Strike is that story written and directed by debutant Aditya Dhar. The film, produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP Movies, will release on January 11.
It was ironic; Vicky was shooting for the spy thriller Raazi released by Dharma Productions and Junglee Pictures in May when he was offered Uri. He started to read the script and was zapped. In Raazi, he plays a Pakistan Army officer married to Indian spy Alia Bhatt. And in Uri, he was being offered the role of an Indian commando who attacks Pakistan! “I felt like the attack was on my house at that time,” Vicky joked. But he took a couple of days’ time to read the script when he was not deep into his Pakistani character and then said yes.
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What followed was months of intense preparation for the role after Raazi was released. Not just for Vicky, but the entire cast of Uri including Mohit Raina, Yami Gautam and Kirti Kulhari who play action roles. The shooting began in June. And it finished in September. RSVP released a teaser of the film for the second anniversary of the actual surgical strike on September 27. Talking about the preparations for the role, Vicky said, “Physically, this was the most challenging film for me.”
It entailed three months of almost five hours’ grueling training every day. The actors were put through weight training in the gym, running 20 rounds of a parade ground, unarmed combat techniques and how to slither down ropes from a chopper para-commando style, then intense courses in the use of arms and ammunition by serving Army officers at a base in Mumbai’s Navy Nagar, also a very strict diet. Vicky said, “When Aditya finally announced ‘It’s a wrap!’ I could not believe it. I asked him if he was sure because I wanted to get back to eating burgers and pizzas that same day!”
The highpoint of their training, and before the Uri unit went to Serbia to shoot the film, was a last day interaction with actual commandos of the Indian Army. They trained the way the professionals did. “In 10 minutes, we were finished,” Vicky said. “I told them, ‘We are just acting your roles and exhausted by the training, you guys are going through it daily!’ My respect for the armed forces went up several notches after that.”
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The shoot was in Serbia because the topography closely resembled that area across the LoC where the actual surgical strike took place. “I had shot scenes in Kashmir for Raaziand I thought the terrain and pine trees in Serbia were exactly like that in Kashmir,” Vicky said. Aditya added that when Indian Army officers and Defence Ministry personnel sawUri: The Surgical Strike, they were amazed at how close to the real retaliation it was. “They told me that our actors had trained so much and so well, that if they were put on the border, they could easily wage a war and hold their own against Pakistan,” Aditya added.
Watch Uri Teaser Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXYPUqFL9ZU
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