Vishal Batra is in awe of Sidharth Malhotra's performance in Shershaah. (Photo: Vishal Batra/Instagram) Shershaah, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani has been garnering a positive response from the audience. The film, based on the life of Kargil war hero Captain Vikram Batra, is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. While Sidharth plays Captain Batra in the movie, Kiara is seen in the role of his ladylove Dimple. Captain Vikram Batra’s brother Vishal Batra is happy that people are liking the film. He feels the two actors have done full justice to their respective roles.
“It is never easy to play someone per se. Sidharth Malhotra put in a lot of sweat, toil, and labour into his role. Even Kiara Advani as Dimple has been very convincing,” Batra told ETimes in a latest interview.
He also clarified that Dimple was not Vikram’s fiancee as the two were not engaged. But the family was planning to get them married soon and Vishal Batra clearly remembers Dimple’s last words to him before his brother passed away.
“I remember Dimple and I were having lunch together, six days before the ill-fated day. She had come to see me off; I was headed to Delhi for some work. She told me: ‘Jab Vikram vapas aa jayega toh aap hamari shaadi mein nachoge na (After Vikram comes back, you’ll dance at our wedding na)?’ I said, ‘Of course, nachunga (I will definitely dance)’,” he recalled.
He said that after Captain Vikram Batra’s death, both he and his parents asked Dimple to marry. “I did. Even my parents told her,” he said. Dimple never married after Vikram’s martyrdom.
During the conversation, Vishal shared how he helped the team of Shershaah in getting permission to shoot Vikram Batra’s last rites scenes in Palanpur, where Captain Vikram’s last rites were performed.
“That I guess was the most difficult scene to shoot. About 30,000 people were gathered. Yes, I helped the Shershaah makers to obtain the required permission. And, there were real Army personnel and a few local personnel from Palanpur as well who were in attendance in that scene; they had to pass by the spot where the soldier lay,” he shared.
Shershaah was supposed to release last year in theatres, but the coronavirus-induced lockdown forced cinema halls to shut, delaying the film’s arrival. Shershaah was further pushed in the beginning of 2021 and it was finally announced that the film would stream online. Helmed by director Vishnu Varadhan, Shershaah has been produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Kaash Entertainment.
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