How Indian Army is helping Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra with Rifleman Jaswant Singh’s biopic

Producer Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is pulling all stops to make sure every research on Rifleman Jaswant Singh is in place before starting the shoot.

Rifleman Jaswant Singh is a story of a 22-year-old Indian army braveheart never told before on celluloid. Producer Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, director Sanjay Khanduri and writer Kamlesh Pandey are pulling all stops to make sure every research on the subject is in place before starting the shoot on their ambitious patriotic project.

Kamlesh, who is developing the script, revealed to IndianExpress.com that Indian Army has been offering them all the required assistance in understanding the life, times and bravado of Rifleman Jaswant Singh. “Jaswant Singh is revered by our army. Such is the respect for this martyr and his bravado that a temple has been constructed and devotees offer their prayers regularly. The army has helped us in meeting his colleagues who were part of the 1962 Indo-China war. We also met the family members of soldier Gopal Singh Gosain who was Jaswant Singh’s colleague and it is in Gopal Singh’s lap that Jaswant breathed his last. We were not able to meet Gopal himself as he passed away recently but we have his video interviews which will be useful for us.”

Kamlesh says the story of Jaswant Singh will inspire one and all. “This is not just a patriotic story. It is a story of human endurance as well. Jaswant Singh and his colleagues fought battles wearing canvas PT shoes. All they had as food and rations were just rice and salt which too exhausted soon. For weapons, all they had was the old .303 rifle belonging to the World War 1 era. Enduring such vagaries, Jaswant Singh and his colleagues fought the Chinese without clinching,” said Kamlesh.