IAF pilot Sreevidya Rajan, who was in Kargil with Gunjan Saxena, questions film's facts

Sreevidya Rajan, an IAF officer, who was posted along with Gunjan Saxena, has criticised the newly released biopic Gunjan Saxena The Kargil Girl. The movie starring Janhvi Kapoor has since its release stirred controversy over the portrayal of the Indian Air Force (IAF), which had written to the censor board objecting to some of the language used in the film by the reel-life officers. Sreevidya, who was posted with Gunjan at the IAF base in Udhampur, was not shown in the film. Now, Sreevidya has come out to address these issues in a strongly worded Facebook post.

In the post, Sreevidya has called out Dharma Productions for showing Gunjan as the only woman pilot at the Udhampur base. “Both of us were posted to Udhampur in 1996 but in the movie, it was shown that she was the only lady pilot posted at the unit. Since the two of us were the first lady pilots to be posted to that helicopter unit, we were skeptical about our acceptance in the male-dominated niche area of flying,” Sreevidya wrote.

She added, “We were under strict scrutiny and certain mistakes of ours were met with corrective actions which may have been overlooked had it been done by our male counterparts. We had to work harder than our counterparts to prove ourselves to be at par with them.”

However, she also said that they received support from the majority of the officers at the base. This is in contrast to the film, where Gunjan is able to find only one ally in a senior male officer and is portrayed as a victim of casual and outright misogyny by the other men.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Gunjan Saxena was not the first Indian female pilot in combat.
• Sreevidya Rajan calls out Dharma Productions for twisting facts in a Facebook post.
• Indian Air Force (IAF) has been wrongly represented as inculcating gender discrimination.

“Some were not happy to share the professional space with us but the majority accepted and treated us as fellow officers working towards a common goal,” Sreevidya has countered. “Our flying began within a few days of our arrival and was never interrupted or cancelled for petty reasons as wrongly portrayed in the movie. The squadron commander was a thorough professional.”

While she admitted that there were no separate toilet facilities or changing spaces for women at the IAF base, Sreevidya said that they eventually shared resources with fellow officers who were accommodating about it.

She has spoken out against one particular scene in the film where a senior officer humiliates Gunjan by forcing her to have an arm wrestling match in front of the entire batch to prove that since she is physically weaker, she cannot be in the IAF. “We never faced any humiliating physical strength demonstrations as shown in the movie. We were never ill-treated or humiliated by our fellow officers.” She also said that the climax of the film, where Gunjan defies orders to abort a rescue to bring back injured Indian soldiers during the Kargil war, did not happen.

“In the movie, Gunjan Saxena was shown as the only lady pilot to fly in Kargil operations. This is factually incorrect. We were posted together to Udhampur and when the Kargil conflict started, I was the first woman pilot to be sent along with the male counterparts in the first detachment of our unit which deployed at Srinagar. I flew missions in the conflict area even before Gunjan's arrival at Srinagar. After a few days of operation, Gunjan Saxena came to Srinagar with the next set of crew. We actively participated in all operations given to us which included casualty evacuation, supply drop, communication sorties, SAR, etc. The heroic acts of the protagonist portrayed in the climax never actually happened and may have been shown as part of cinematic license,” Sreevidya said.

Also Read: To Watch Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl Or Not, Should Nepotism Debate Be The Deciding Factor?

Sreevidya has accused the filmmakers (directed by Sharan Sharma) of “twisting the facts given by Gunjan for the sake of publicity.”

“As the pioneers of women pilots, we were treated with utmost respect and it was our responsibility to live up to the expectations and pave way for future generations. The movie is sending out a wrong message about the lady officers of IAF there by demeaning the prestigious organisation of our country,” she said. “I only wish that since it is a Biopic, Gunjan should have made sure to show the facts and portray IAF in a positive light before giving her approval to air the movie.” Official Image Credit: Twitter

Alankrita Arora is an intern at She The People