'Gunjan Saxena' makers twisted facts: IAF pilot Sreevidya Rajan objects to film

Sreevidya, who is from Kerala, was not shown in the film although she was the first to fly missions in conflict areas.
Sreevidya Rajan and Gunajn Saxena
Sreevidya Rajan and Gunajn Saxena
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Sreevidya Rajan from Kerala, an IAF officer who was posted along with Gunjan Saxena, has objected to the newly released biopic on the latter. Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, starring Janhvi Kapoor, released last week on Netflix and has since stirred some controversy over the portrayal of the Indian Air Force (IAF) as being hostile to having a woman officer in their midst. IAF has written to the censor board objecting to the same and claiming that it has always been an equal opportunity space. It has also been pointed out that 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 Facebook post.

In a strongly worded 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.

Sreevidya also acknowledged being on the receiving end of prejudices and preconceived notions from some officers about her and Gunjan being woman pilots. “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, Sreevidya 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 shown a victim of casual and outright misogyny by the other men. In the film, we see male pilots not wanting to fly with Gunjan, leading to many of her sorties being cancelled.

“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,” Sreevidya wrote on Facebook.

She also said that the climax of the film, where Gunjan defies orders to abort a rescue to bring back Indian 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 licence,” Sreevidya said.

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 (sic),” 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.”

Earlier, retired Wing Commander Namrita Chandi, had also criticised Gunjan Saxena and accused the filmmakers of or "peddling lies". She, like Sreevidya, said that they faced issues with changing rooms and toilets initially, but these were teething troubles.

Hours after Sreevidya's Facebook post, Gunjan wrote her own blog which was published on NDTV on Monday. She said that while the filmmakers took cinematic liberties, they did not exaggerate her representation. Gunajn hit out at the people who had been ciritcising her and said that those were her credentials and achievments. However, she also said that there was no discrimination at the organisational level. "Since the bias is not at an organizational level, the experiences of different woman officers would be different. To deny it completely speaks of a feudal mindset and undermines the grit of women Officers. I also combated the difficulties of prejudice and discrimination at the hands of a few individuals for being a woman," Gunjan said. Read the full blog here

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