
With Sidharth Malhotra in the lead role, the biopic of Kargil war hero Captain Vikram Batra is all set to release on Amazon Prime Video on August 12. The biopic is titled Shershaah and one may wonder why.
The Kargil War of 1999 was extensively covered by television media and as the Indian Army accomplished one goal after another, their laurels were broadcasted on national news. It was during one of these news interviews with NDTV that Captain Vikram Batra had shared that his codename was Shershaah, which the Pakistanis were already aware of.
In an interview that he gave days before his death, Captain Vikram Batra shared that the Pakistani forces had learned about his code name and were using the same radio frequency as the Indian soldiers. He shared that one of the Pakistani guys said on the radio, “He said ‘Shershaah, you have come? Don’t try to come up otherwise you will have a tough time. And that was a time they gave us a challenge, and my guys, they went wild that how dare a Pakistani troop challenge us?'”
Days after this interview, Vikram Batra laid down his life in the service of his country. He was 24 at that time. He was honoured with a Param Vir Chakra posthumously. He is said to have gunned down at least four Pakistani soldiers during his final confrontation and then rushed out of his bunker to rescue another officer who was grievously injured. As he charged towards the enemy in his last moments, he yelled out “Durga Mata ki Jai” which was the war-cry of his unit.
Directed by Vishnu Vardhan, Shershaah also stars Kiara Advani and has been produced by Dharma Productions and Pen India Limited.
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