As India celebrates its 76th Independence Day today, i.e. August 15, 2022, we talk about two of the finest films made on Indian soldiers - Uri: The Surgical Strike and Lakshya headlined by Vicky Kaushal and Hrithik Roshan respectively. Both the films have achieved cult status over the years.
In a recent interview, the director of Uri Aditya Dhar revealed the connection between his 2019 film, based on India's retaliation to the 2016 Uri attacks when the country conducted a surgical strike on the terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and the 2004 film Lakshya based on the 1999 Kargil War between the two neighbouring nations.
Speaking to Pinkvilla, Aditya said, "So not many people know this. Vicky’s name in the film is Vihaan Singh Shergill, and the name was inspired from Hrithik Roshan’s name in Lakshya, which was Karan Sheirgill. I really love Lakshya, so in my own way I paid a small tribute to that film by giving Vicky’s character the same surname."
Sharing how he added his lucky number 3 in the film, Dhar added, "You know when they go for surgical strike in the movie, there is a time that begins and reflects at the bottom of the screen. All the numbers in those mentioned timings are multiples of three, because 3 is my lucky number. So I kept it like that, and nobody really knows about it.”
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While Uri marked the directorial debut of Aditya and even won him the National Film Award for Best Director, Lakshya was Farhan Akhtar's second film after his sensational debut in 2001 with the coming-of-age romantic drama Dil Chahta Hai starring Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Akshaye Khanna.
READ | Samantha Ruth Prabhu to star opposite Vicky Kaushal in Aditya Dhar's The Immortal Ashwatthama?
Aditya Dhar later married Yami Gautam, the lead actress of his film in 2021. Meanwhile, he is now working on his next The Immortal Ashwatthama, which also stars Vicky Kaushal and reportedly, Samantha Ruth Prabhu has been signed opposite Vicky for the mythological epic.