The toughest responsibility was that when I wear this uniform, no soldier should say that you took us lightly: Vicky Kaushal

By Vandana Srivastawa

on January 03, 2019

Vicky Kaushal is all geared up for his upcoming release Uri: The Surgical Strike on January 11. The film also stars Yami Gautam in the lead and is directed by Aditya Dhar. It is based on the real events of 2016 when Indian soldiers avenged a deadly terrorist strike by carrying out a surgical strike in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Vicky plays the role of Major Vihan Shergill in the film and had immense words of praise for the jawans of Indian Army after essaying the grueling and physically draining character. During an interview with a leading daily, Vicky spoke about a vivid memory meeting with a soldier during the shooting of the film and the toughest thing to do was to shoulder the responsibility of wearing the uniform.

During the interaction, Vicky was asked to share an incident or a memory that stood out for him. What he recalled was truly heartwarming. He said, “We were shooting in a Cantonment area and the army guys were sweet enough to host us for dinner. It went on till 3 am. It was then that I met this young captain, who asked me what I was doing the next day. I replied that as it was my day off, I would sleep till noon. When I asked him his plans, he told me that he had a drill at 5 am where he had to run for 25 kilometres and do other aspects of physical training following that. I told him that I should have left early and let them sleep. He said, ‘It’s okay, we live each day to the fullest because we never know when our picture will come in a newspaper’. And he said it with a smile. I will never forget that line or that smile. Who are they doing it for? For whom was he going to get up and run for 25 km? For me, so that I could sleep till lunch time. I can’t even tell you how that felt.”

[caption id="attachment_189023" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Vicky Kaushal[/caption]

He further added, “That’s why in films like Uri, it can be play-acting but you start feeling the emotions as soon as you put on the costume. When you hear such stories, you realize they have earned it. And that’s why they are so sensitive about us depicting Army lives in films, because they can pinpoint, ‘that medal was not correct, or that cap was not correct’. They have given so much to earn that medal. They are like, ‘play-act the way you want to, but don’t mess with it. We have come back alive and that’s why we have that red colour on our chest’. So you can’t be frivolous. When people ask me what was the toughest thing to play, I tell them, it’s to shoulder the responsibility that when I wear this uniform, no soldier should say that you took us lightly. Even if one of them says, ‘Well done, you look like one of us’, that would be an Oscar for me. I really look forward to their reaction. Eventually, we will show it to them and that will be the most nerve-wracking screening for me.”

We feel immensely proud of Vicky for the fact that through this film and through his words he has brought a facet of our Indian Army to the fore that we all know but take for granted and never bother to think or give them the respect and honour that they deserve unless something untoward happens.