JP Dutta visits Delhi with his 'Paltan'

JP Dutta and his army of actors visited Delhi recently for the promotion of their upcoming film 'Paltan'. The director said that he got to know of the story of the clash between Indian military forces and the Chinese army at

Nathu La

in 1967 through his friends in the armed forces. “This is a story which remained buried under the carpet for long. But thanks to my friends in armed forces that I got to know about it. I started digging out information on it and met a few officers who fought the battle. They told me about a lot of incidents and that helped me in getting the story right,” said the director, whose film 'Border' has been one of the most iconic war films in Bollywood. He added that the reason we don’t have many good war films in

Bollywood

is because not every

war film

is a realistic film. “When you make a war film, you have to keep in mind that you are going to make a realistic film. Without any disrespect to any of my contemporaries or young filmmakers, what is required and what they should keep in mind is that if the film is not based on real story and facts, then you are falling in the hands of

jingoism

and people get a chance to say this is nothing but jingoism, which is very upsetting. It is something that should not be mentioned in a country like ours. We are not a warring nation, we are a peaceful nation. We should not allow that word to creep into our dialogue. What disturbs me most is how jingoism is related to patriotism today,” he said.

Sonu Sood

Arjun Rampal

The actors, Arjun Rampal, Gurmeet Choudhary, Harshvardhan Rane and Sonu Sood, who were present with the director here said that Dutta’s thorough research and guidance helped them understand their characters. “He is one director who researches for you, all he requested us was not to come with any preconceived notions about the film or the character. He helped me discover Colonel L Rai Singh, the character I play in my film. When I asked him who he was, he just asked me to come to

Ladakh

and when I went there I found a 50-page docket in my room that had everything about Colonel L Rai Singh. Also, my grandparents were in the army and my nanaji’s experiences were a lot like Col Singh’s, so I drew a lot from that as well to prepare for the role,” said Arjun Rampal.

Gurmeet

The actors also shared that they were shooting with real soldiers in the film which was an amazing experience. “To live that life in extreme weather conditions was a learning. It was not just physically challenging, but to interact with those soldiers and to know their stories was heart-touching. My dad was in the army, but after interacting with soldiers we were shooting with, I realized how little I knew about their lives,” said Gurmeet. Sonu added, “I always said that an actor is incomplete till he gets into an army uniform. I am thankful to sir (JP Dutta) that I got to about the lives of army men so closely.”

Harshvardhan Rane