Writes to Central Board of Film Certification

Taking exception to its alleged “negative portrayal” in the film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl made by Dharma Productions owned by Karan Johar, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has written to the Central Board of Film Certification in this regard.

The IAF in its letter has complained that as per initial understanding the production house had agreed to depict the IAF authentically and make all efforts to ensure that the film helps to inspire the next generation of IAF officers.

However, the trailer of the movie showed that certain scenes and dialogues were found to portray the IAF in an “undue negative light,” the letter said.

It also said in the aim to glorify the screen character of ‘Ex-Flt Lt Gunjan Saxena, M/s Dharma Productions presented some situations that are misleading and portray an inappropriate work culture especially against women in the IAF.

The story of the movie is based on the first Indian Air Force woman pilot who was part of the 1999 Kargil war. Gunjan was the first woman helicopter pilot to fly in a combat zone and was involved in the evacuation of injured soldiers.  She was awarded the gallantry Shaurya Vir Award for displaying courage during the war.

The IAF in its letter said the Service has always ensured an equal opportunity to both male and female personnel and the organisation is gender neutral. The IAF has also annexed the summary of the scenes and dialogues of the script, which are considered objectionable due to the presentation of incorrect gender bias with the letter.

It also said Dharma Productions was informed about the objectionable portion of the movie and was advised to delete/modify the same. However, the production house has not deleted the scenes but it proposed a media plan in the run-up to the release and inserted a disclaimer in the movie.

The IAF stated that it feels that a mere media plan and disclaimer would not be adequate to prevent the presentation of incorrect facts about the IAF.

“In view of the above, the issue of grant of NOC for the release of the movie will be considered after deleting or suitably modifying the scenes in order to cater to the observations mentioned,” the IAF stated.

Incidentally, about a fortnight back, the Defence Ministry had written to the CBF, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, to advise production houses to obtain No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Defence Ministry before the telecast of any film, documentary or web series on military.