Article 370 director Aditya Jambhale says Yami Gautam starrer is based on true facts: ‘This mission was carried out very secretively…had to dig out information not available in the public domain’

 

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Aditya credits Dhar as his mentor. About working with Dhar, he says, “My first short Kharvas received the National Award the same year Uri: The Surgical Strike was honoured. The first time I met Aditya was at the award ceremony in Delhi. Around that time I had just finished my third short film called Amritsar Junction. One thing led to another and we started our association. He gave me the freedom and trusted me a lot and that’s how we ended up working together on Article 370, the perfect directorial launch for me.”

Discussing the challenges of making Article 370, Jambhale said, “The topic itself (was challenging). It is historically such a huge decision that was made, it has politics involved in it as well. It is quite a sensitive topic. Our target was to remain highly authentic, take it to realism as opposed to deflecting reality at any point. We wanted to show it how it was. So research wise it was very challenging as we had to dig out a lot that was not in the public domain. That’s also one reason why we wanted to do the film, 90-95 percent of the film gives information that the public doesn’t know as it’s not in the public domain at all. Secondly, because it has politics, the gravity of directing a political thriller is very high because it is tricky, you can’t go wrong somewhere, you can’t cross that thin line, you have to remain true to your intent and portray with dignity and at the same time (show) realism which is not easy, but I enjoyed it.”

 

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Jambhale also claims that he, as a filmmaker, has “showed things very correctly” and “stuck to facts”, while telling the story because it is a “sensitive topic” which was carried out “very secretively” by the government.

He says, “The film shows why the abrogation of Article 370 was there and how the mission took place. It does show the transformation in the end chapter because people should know how it was important that it was done. Most importantly thing about this mission is that it was carried out very secretively. Nobody knew how this was going to happen or whether it was going to happen or not till the final judgement day. It had a very important intention which was that it would be carried out without affecting the innocent people, that there cannot be loss of innocent life. Only then you can call that mission successful. This mission was carried out in a valley which was conflicted for seventy years without any innocent person losing their life. That is what makes this mission so special.”

He went on to add, “Controversy can happen because of anything. But as a director I make sure that I don’t go wrong somewhere, that my information and research doesn’t go off the reality and the truth that was regarding that mission. The point for me was that if my intent is right.”