Bhuj: The Pride Of India released on Disney+ Hotstar VIP and the fans are totally loving it.
Director Abhishek Dudhaiya says this movie helped him revisit his grandmother’s story of how she played an active role during the 1971 Indo-Pak War.
The film revolves around the true story of IAF Squadron Leader and then Bhuj airport in-charge Vijay Karnik, played by Ajay Devgn, who reconstructed an entire IAF airbase with the help of 300 women from a local village in Madhapar in Bhuj, Gujarat to protect the country.
“In Bhuj, this story is narrated as a folktale. My grandmother Laxmi Parmar, who was 35 at that time, was one of the 300 women who helped in the making of the runway and I had heard a lot of stories about it from her. So, I decided that whenever I direct a movie, this will be my first film,” Dudhaiya told PTI in an interview.
The director’s intention was to reach out to a wider and younger audience who are not familiar with 1971 war.
“I knew this would turn out to be an expensive film as it is a war movie. A lot of people then suggested that I make small films first and that Bhuj should be my tenth film. The task was huge. But I was sure I didn’t want to let go of such an inspiring story,” he added.
During his research, he spoke to 60 women who are still alive because he wanted the story to be as real as possible.
“The film talks about women empowerment. Women would take decisions on their own as their husbands would go to cities to earn livelihoods. For example, there were women who broke down their own houses to help Vijay Karnik in his mission of achieving the impossible task. It was a difficult thing to do and these women chose to serve the nation,” he continued.
“We had no concerns while making the film as we had the required support. My only concern was to be as honest as possible to the actual events and make sure we don’t show anything in a bad light,” he added.
Both Dudhaiya and Karnik felt that Ajay Devgn would be the apt choice to play the lead role.
While talking about Ajay Devgn, he said, “Ajay sir saw a lot of videos of Karnik ji to gauge the basic things. He also met him to understand how it all happened. When someone like Ajay sir supports you, there is more responsibility and pressure. I feel blessed that I got the opportunity to work with him in my first film.”
The film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha, Ammy Virk, Nora Fatehi and Sharad Kelkar.