Exclusive | Vivian Bhathena on 120 Bahadur: 'Extreme weather, injuries, and..'

In an exclusive conversation actor Vivan Bhathena opened up about being part of Farhan Akhtarrsquos 120 Bahadur his intense character preparation the reallife hardships of shooting the film and the injuries he sustained while shooting on the sets of the filmldquoI realised the magnitude and gravity of this storyrdquo Calling 120 Bahadur one of the most important films of his career Vivan said he signed it instantly ldquoItrsquos a very important story that has to be toldrdquo he expressed ldquoWhen I heard the story for the first time I realised the magnitude and the gravity of the situation And I realised how important this story is to be shown to all our future generationsrdquoHe immediately knew he had to be part of it ldquoSo I immediately jumped on it And the fact that Excel was doing it I knew that its going to have some truth in it Itrsquos not going to be made in a very foolproof way where it just skims the surfacerdquoPreparing for a character lost to historyVivan revealed that researching his character was particularly challenging ldquoI had to go through because theres very little information available about these people There are some books writtenhellip but the book cannot guide you There are very few photographs Everyone has a different story Everyone says this and everyone says thatrdquoHe described the tales as ldquoChinese whispersrdquo adding ldquo120 Bahadur become one of those fairy tales and people have been telling their kids these stories So it has changed in certain waysrdquoTo craft authenticity he relied on intuition ldquoI did my best to imagine what the demeanour of such a character would be mdash a person who fought so hard that even his body was not found That is all I can sayrdquoHis directorrsquos brief was clear ldquoMy director was very clear on telling me that I needed to be that person mdash that the moment you walk onto the set everyone knows somebody has come on the set And automatically all the soldiers fear yourdquo Vivan plays the strict sergeant ldquoSo I play the sergeant the JCO who keeps everyone in linerdquoThe biggest validation came from real soldiers on set ldquoFor me the biggest compliment was when the army guys used to come and tell me lsquoSir you are doing a great job Literally all our JCOs behave like this scold like this love like this and look like yoursquordquoThe cast met real soldiers to understand their lives ldquoWe saw what kind of conditions they are burnt The sun the skin is peeling off their hands are all cut and bruised You can tell itrsquos a soldier Itrsquos a very different human being And we do our best to showcase thatrdquoExtreme weather injuries and no vanityVivan detailed the extreme weather in Ladakh and the shoot began in brutal heat ldquoWe started in September which was 45 degrees plus Got burnt to a crisprdquo Then came freezing temperatures ldquoTill we wake up every morning at 4 am Its minus 9 minus 10 till we reached a point where we were at Pangong Lake at minus 16 Shooting in thatrdquoNights were almost unbearable ldquoThe moment the wind used to start it just goes into your neck And it hurts for yearsrdquo Vivan suffered severe injuries ldquoI lost two teeth on the set My teeth broke inside my mouth literally shattered inside my gums I had to get them pulled outrdquo Even then army doctors took it casually ldquoThey were like yes this is very common with everyone You dont have the habit of compressionrdquoThe cast abandoned vanity completely He said ldquoWe wanted to be those soldiers Excel makes sure we tell the truth We make sure we look the part and feel the part We didnrsquot use any makeup except for blood effects We never tried to look pretty on screen We wanted to look as rough and as burned as possiblerdquoFor Vivan dignity was the goal ldquoWhen we saw the soldiers what they actually looked likemdashthere is a dignity to that If you see someonersquos base someonersquos makeuphellip your orders get disconnected immediatelyrdquo