Real-life Gunjan Saxena responds to critics slamming her biopic ‘The Kargil Girl’

Retired Indian Air Force officer Gunjan Saxena, whose biopic ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl’ was recently released on OTT platform Netflix, has responded to the criticism surrounding the alleged 'lies' peddled in the movie.

Slamming naysayers, she wrote on NDTV that “some people have tried to distort the basic founding values of my existence and identity.”

The film starring Sridevi’s daughter Janhvi Kapoor has been embroiled in controversies since the release, with the Indian Air Force (IAF) dragging in the Censor Board over the 'undue negative' portrayal of the forces.

Several air force officers, including Saxena’s coursemate Flight Lieutenant Sreevidya Rajan (retd), have alleged that facts were 'twisted; in the film. Retired Wing Commander Namrita Chandi, on the other hand, had accused the biopic of 'peddling lies'. She had claimed in an Outlook India article that Srividya Rajan was the first lady pilot who flew to Kargil, not Gunjan Saxena.

Replying to her, Saxena said: “Let me inform readers with utmost conviction and honesty that even though cinematic liberties were exercised in my biopic by the filmmakers, what they did not miss or exaggerate was me, the real Gunjan Saxena. I admit without hesitation that I have even more of an iron will and resoluteness than was portrayed in the movie.”