'Didn't want to risk portraying Sam Manekshaw wrong in Sam Bahadur'

A film on the Indian Army has to ensure that everything, from the medal to the crease of their uniform, has to be accurate and if that’s not in place, they obviously feel hurt and angered, said Vicky Kaushal, who is currently being seen playing India’s first field marshal, Sam Manekshaw in his latest film ‘Sam Bahadur’.

The actor, who had previously donned the uniform in the 2019 blockbuster ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, said he realised with his training with the Indian Army how they function and what doesn’t make the cut for them, which is their lazy on-screen portrayal.

“From all the opportunities that I got to interact with the Army, first while doing ‘Uri’ and now ‘Sam Bahadur’, I actually had a lot of heart-to-heart conversation with them, about what they think of cinema, Hindi films depiction of them. Of course, they have said they understand one has to take creative liberties but sometimes some lines are also crossed which makes them feel, ‘Aise thodi na ho sakta hai?’ But I have seen them to be very sensitive of their uniform, medals and badges,” he said in an interview with Ranveer Allahbadia.

Kaushal added, “From my training with them, I realised that they have taken beatings during the drill if their uniform is not proper. It’s a hardcore punishment that they get during their training days. So, if we wear the uniform or medals casually, they are bound to feel bad about it, that at least take care of this. Meghna was like a hawk on sets, taking care of the details, the colour of the uniform because you can’t give tribute to the army if we can’t even get the uniform right.”

Vicky further said that Army officers would always end the conversation with him with a caution: he cannot risk portraying Sam Manekshaw wrong.

“There is a glory to live up to. You didn’t have even one degree of scope to fool around or miss the mark because whenever I would interact with the Army, they would be very encouraging, show a lot of faith and give a lot of love. But they would always end the conversation saying, ‘You better do a good job. He was our best man’. That would always scare me a little bit,” he added.