Imagine an actor putting on 8kgs of weight for a role, then reducing it for another project and repeatedly doing this , before every schedule.. Spending innumerable hours with army officers in their offices and barracks, understanding the uniform, protocols, hierarchy in the armed forces,having never ending discussions with their families about life, their duty and even politics… All of this to play an Indian army colonel from 1971 in what is now : one of the most successful Hindi films of all time: Gadar2!
..and then to have highly decorated and reputed real life colonels validate and appreciate his hardwork for portraying the character accurately and authentically on screen. .
The highly acclaimed Bollywood and Hollywood actor Gaurav Chopra played col Rawat ,a young patriotic Indian colonel in Gadar 2, and is winning hearts and ‘seetis’ for his new look, performance and dialogues.
He never imagined that there would be such an outpouring of love for his portrayal of an upright and honest army officer in the film. But for Gaurav Chopra, the cherry on the cake was to get appreciation from colonel Surinder Singh and colonel Ranveer Jamwaal along with many other officers and jawans from the Indian army, who loved his performance and his authenticity on screen when the magnum opus film was screened specially for the Ministry of Defense and Indian army officials in Delhi.
Mr. Surinder Singh, who mentored Gaurav during the shooting of the film, has been continuously passing on congratulatory messages from the army with personal pride.
He said, “I am part of the process of the film from day one as a consultant, and i must say that Gaurav Chopra has blown the screen with the genuine portrayal of the army colonel. “
” I must complement Gaurav for the real portrayal of an army colonel. All the jawans and officers present during the screening really praised Mr. Chopra for adopting and getting into the skin of an army officer with almost 100% accuracy.”
Narrating an incident, Surinder Singh said, “During the shooting of the film we were walking in the YOL cantonment area near Dharamshala and Mr. Gaurav Chopra was wearing a vintage army uniform of a colonel. Some of the real soldiers were crossing us when they saw him and they actually saluted him! They forgot that the uniform this gentleman is wearing is no longer worn by the army officers but the way he was carrying himself in that uniform, everybody thought he was a real army colonel. I was quite happy after witnessing this incident and I could see the sense of achievement on Gaurav’s face.”
Colonel Ranveer Jamwaal is known to conquer Mount Everest thrice, he also conquered 7 summits of the world and he is right now heading the ‘Har Shikhar Tiranga Abhiyaan’ through which Indian Army is conquering the highest peaks of 28 states of India, for which he happened to be in Maharashtra and specially wanted to congratulate Gaurav for looking and depicting as authentically as possible. He did so by gifting Gaurav his valueable time, precious stories from his own experiences and a momento from his mission . He said that the army felt pride when they saw Gaurav on screen because it felt so real and that Gaurav displayed the honourable intent of duty and nation above everything and everyone else to perfection.
Gaurav said. “It was really gratifying and satisfying to know that all the efforts of getting that I put for almost two years has now touched so many hearts.
I believe actors are blessed with many lives.. living them to the fullest, with utmost sincerity, for them to come alive on screen is what I aim for when I work on my craft. And this time, it was an honour to represent India as a nation and the Indian army on screen in a magnum opus like Gadar 2. Now that this praise is coming from stalwarts and well respected personalities nothing can match that feeling of honour and satisfaction. It will always be the biggest award for me. “
