Sidharth Malhotra reveals who inspired him to play Captain Vikram Batra in ‘Shershaah’

Sidharth Malhotra who will be next seen in the war drama ‘Shershaah’ which is based on the life of Captain Vikram Batra who lost his life in the 1999 Kargil War, reveals who the person was behind his inspiration to do such a film.

As reported by Filmfare, Malhotra revealed that the idea to make ‘Shershaah’ came about five years ago when he met Batra’s twin brother Vishal Batra, “I first met with Vishal Batra around five years ago, at the time with a completely different team. He and his family had approached me to discuss the potential of telling Vikram’s story and I must say I was immediately gripped emotionally by the way Vishal described Vikram’s life and his character – his charm, his courage and his all-round personality”…“We couldn’t make it work at the time, but it was a story I believed needed to be told. I approached Dharma Productions and they were immediately on board and 5 years on we are so pleased with the end product”, added Malhotra.

For the ‘Marjaavaan’ (2019) actor he knew making a biopic on someone’s life involved more than just getting the physical appearance right and it was important that he was able to showcase the Captain’s personality authentically as possible, “Vikram and I are both Punjabi and culturally of course we have several similarities, perhaps right though to our appearance. I believe this is why his family sought me to play his character. But it is one thing possessing the physical and background traits and another to accurately portray his personality. I feel meeting with Vishal helped with this greatly – the descriptions he used about his twin were incredible, it really helped me to take on some of his courage and strength,” explained Malhotra.

After forming a close bond with the Batra family, Malhotra shared that he was pleased that he was able to give justice to Captian Batra’s legacy, “Doing his family proud was the priority for me, not commercial success. We’ve been on this five year journey together and It was vital we got this right. Vishal told me that he had never visualised his brother on the battlefield before, but now when he sees me in Shershaah he can.”

Directed by Vishnuvardhan, ‘Sheershah’ releases on Amazon Prime Video on 12th August.