Janhvi Kapoor played the titular role in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl with resilience, mirroring the steely resolve of its real-life heroine. The actor, nominated in the Best Actor (Film) category of the upcoming mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards, says the Sharan Sharma-directed venture was a personally rewarding journey. “The film made me aware of my strengths and weaknesses. It wasn’t an action thriller; it [was nothing like] a conventional film of this genre. But it had a lot of heart,” she says.   

Rising above jingoism, the film beautifully brought forth a different connotation of patriotism. In a scene, Gunjan tells her father that flying a plane is her only ambition, and wonders whether she may be deceiving her country by using the Armed Forces as a means to fulfil the dream. Her father explains that sincerity is the first step towards serving the nation. “It was the last [scene] we worked on. The scene doesn’t condemn [chest-thumping] nationalist sentiment, but shows other forms of patriotism. It encapsulates the film’s spirit. We had multiple versions of the sequence, but nothing captured Gunjan ma’am’s love for the country as beautifully as this did. After watching the film, she said, ‘You’ve said everything I wish I could say.’”