Vicky Kaushal: 'Uri' is my first superhero film

Vicky Kaushal is three hours late for our interaction. But it’s probably been more frustrating for him, having done movie promotions in Marve and getting stuck in major traffic en route to us in Juhu on a Saturday night. He apologises profusely for the delay, which we find endearing. The actor, who has played varied characters in films like Raazi, Sanju, Manmarziyaan, Love Per Square Foot and Lust Stories, looks forward to the response to his upcoming movie, Uri: The Surgical Strike where he essays the role of Major Vihan Shergill. Directed by Aditya Dhar, it is based on the real events of 2016, when Indian soldiers avenged a deadly terrorist attack by carrying out a surgical strike. 

It’s probably been the toughest shoot for Vicky physically, as he suffered a tennis elbow while shooting a sequence for it. “You feel it’s minor, but it’s actually so bad that you are unable to do anything,” he recalls, adding that it took him 25 days to recover. “We thought it was due to exertion and we weren’t taking it seriously. Later, the doctor told us it’s tennis elbow. I just thought it’s cool that I have an injury which even Sachin Tendulkar had!” he laughs. In between two plates of brownies with ice-cream — he sheepishly asks for ours as well when we refuse the server — Vicky shares his memories of shooting this film. 
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How difficult was it for you ­— physically and mentally —  to shoot for Uri?

Extremely. All of us are anxious about how the movie will do at the box office and whether people will like it or not. But the one thing which that soothes us is that we have done all that we could. I asked Aditya if he thought there was even an ounce of energy left in him that he could give this movie and he said ‘no’. I can say for sure, mere andar kuch nahin bacha tha jo maine iss film ko nahin diya. 

We shot in real jungles and locations. The blasts are not created through VFX. It would take us 15 minutes to wear all the gear. We couldn’t just take it off and put it back on. So, when we would rest in-between shots, the helmet would end up becoming our pillow in the bushes. It was exhausting. But in retrospective, I know aisa mauka vaapas nahin milega. It was immensely satisfying. At the end of the day, when you hit the bed, you feel, I have earned this and when you wake up in the morning, you’re charged up to start again.

After acting in this film, have you started appreciating the Indian army even more?  

Absolutely! I keep telling Aditya, this is my first superhero film. Our soldiers call themselves a breed apart. After Uri, I understood why they do so. It’s not because of how tough they are. It’s just their willingness to stand before a nation to take a bullet and pull the trigger when it’s needed. To be away from their families for months at a stretch and not knowing when they will come back, or if they will come back at all. That willfulness to serve the nation, people who they don’t know. All of that. They take pride in it and the way they do so is mesmerising.

Can you share an incident or memory that stood out for you? 

We were shooting in a Cantonment area and the army guys were sweet enough to host us for dinner. It went on till 3 am. It was then that I met this young captain, who asked me what I was doing the next day. I replied that as it was my day off, I would sleep till noon. When I asked him his plans, he told me that he had a drill at 5 am where he had to run for 25 kilometres and do other aspects of physical training following that. I told him that I should have left early and let them sleep. He said, ‘It’s okay, we live each day to the fullest because we never know when our picture will come in a newspaper’. And he said it with a smile. I will never forget that line or that smile. Who are they doing it for? For whom was he going to get up and run for 25 km? For me, so that I could sleep till lunch time. I can’t even tell you how that felt. That’s why in films like Uri, it can be play-acting but you start feeling the emotions as soon as you put on the costume. When you hear such stories, you realise they have earned it. And that’s why they are so sensitive about us depicting Army lives in films, because they can pinpoint, ‘that medal was not correct, or that cap was not correct’. They have given so much to earn that medal. They are like, ‘play-act the way you want to, but don’t mess with it. We have come back alive and that’s why we have that red colour on our chest’. So you can’t be frivolous. When people ask me what was the toughest thing to play, I tell them, it’s to shoulder the responsibility that when I wear this uniform, no soldier should say that you took us lightly. Even if one of them says, ‘Well done, you look like one of us’, that would be an Oscar for me. I really look forward to their reaction. Eventually, we will show it to them and that will be the most nerve-wracking screening for me.

You played a Pakistani army officer in Raazi and here, you’re a Special Forces Para Major in the Indian Army. How different or similar was it playing these two characters? 

There’s a beautiful common thread between Iqbal of Raazi and Major Vihan Shergill of Uri. They are both patriots and that’s enough to play an army man. The difference lies in their jobs. In the latter, he’s a Special Forces Para 
Commando. The tasks he does are mission based. It’s an elite, stealth team of commandos trained to become special forces. Then, of course, his back story in the film, the surgical strikes, the effect it had on the nation and of course, the defence itself. The interesting part is that I got Uri while I was playing a Pakistani army officer in Raazi. I read the script and I was so excited. I finished that schedule of Raazi and it took me just one-and-a-half hours to read the script and say yes to it. I wanted to be a part of this film because it’s such an honour.

Unlike your earlier movies like Masaan and Raman Raghav, where you shared the burden with other parallel leads, in Uri, the spotlight is on you. Does that amount to more pressure?

I have been waiting for this pressure! (Laughs) I have worked hard to shoulder this responsibility and I want to deal with it for many films to come.