- Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata depicts the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai's Cama Hospital
- Kangana Ranaut produced and starred in the film through Manikarnika Films
- The film focuses on nurses' bravery during the terrorist attack at the hospital
Manoj Tapadia's Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata will give you goosebumps and deliver the kind of jump scares you hope you never have to witness. It's a brave story to put on the silver screen, letting the audience witness the horrors of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
That the world has not forgotten and cannot do so is just the tip of the iceberg. What remained largely eclipsed, or was perhaps only a fleeting glimpse, was how Mumbai's Cama & Albless Hospital was also attacked, and how the blue-collar staff, doctors and nurses waged a different war on one of the darkest nights India has ever known.
The film's cast features Kangana Ranaut as Geeta Madhav Gandhare, Girija Oak as Sheetal Revagade, Smita Tambe as Trupti Takle, Esha Dey as Babita Adsule, Prasad Oak as Kedar Thatte and Sayaji Shinde as Inspector Kamble. Amruta Namdev, Priya Berde, Zahid Khan and Aditya Mishra also play important roles. The story is incomplete without the battalion of formidable nurses who risked everything to protect those fighting for their lives.
In an exclusive conversation with NDTV, Girija Oak opens up about working with Kangana Ranaut both as a co-actor and producer. She recalls one scene that sent chills down her spine and brought back the reality of the day the incident took place.
Kangana Ranaut: The Producer Vs The Actor
Being a producer is no easy task. From budget constraints to box-office returns, producers have a barrage of responsibilities to tackle. Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata is backed by Kangana Ranaut's production house Manikarnika Films. She also plays the film's lead.
Does the stress show on her face?
Girija Oak, who plays nurse Sheetal Revagade, says, "She's a thorough professional. When we were on set, she was fully focused and present. I'm sure there were a lot of things happening around her - not just that she is an MP, but also that she was a producer on this film. When we were not in our scenes, she would be on set with many people coming to meet her, and she would sit in one place with her team around her."
She adds, "Kangana is a very good actor - you can tell. If an actor is even disinterested, distracted or dishonest for a moment, the camera catches it. You can't catch her at all. I'm sure there's a lot going on in her head, like everyone else. But when she's focused, she's entirely focused."
On Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata's Most Intense Scenes
Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata brings gory details of the 26/11 attacks to the screen, leaving you stunned. The crisp two-hour film shows how the brave nurses, often demeaned as a grade below 'actual doctors', stared fear in the face when terrorists attacked the government hospital that unfortunate night.
Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail Khan, armed with AK-47s and grenades, kept shooting indiscriminately and killed two security guards.
The remorse in their eyes? None. But Girija Oak recalls how it hit her when she looked at the actor who played Kasab.
She says, "When I first saw the actor who played Kasab, I hadn't seen him in his get-up. He was dressed exactly like the pictures we've seen of Kasab on every news platform. That image still haunts you - the CST image of him with a gun. He had the whole look: gun, backpack, everything."
She continues, "When he walked onto the landing where I was standing, we had a shot where he walks in and I escape. I saw him and my heart stopped for a second. It was a living, breathing Kasab in front of me. I literally paused, took a deep breath. I wasn't expecting that kind of bodily reaction."
Girija Oak recalls how the attack gripped the city of dreams years ago, leaving everyone traumatised; that image still haunts everybody.
"Having said that, during the shoot you can dissociate from certain things because filming enables you to do so. There's a cut; there are technical elements. It's not as immersive as seeing the finished film. There is no background music, no edit, no build-up when you're shooting. These scenes are pretty plain and stretched out, and then they are cut and placed," the actress adds.
What Happened In Reality - Was The Cama Hospital Fight Known To People?
When people recall the gruesome outcome of 26/11, locations widely covered on news channels were the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Leopold Cafe - which still bears bullet marks - and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), one of the world's busiest stations.
But there are few detailed accounts of what happened at Cama Hospital.
Girija Oak concurs, "I remember Cama hospital being a small news item. It was attacked; it was written about briefly - they entered Cama hospital, two or three lives were lost - that was about it."
She adds, "The Cama hospital news was wrapped up in a small three- or four-line segment and kept flashing in tickers: CST was attacked, Leopold Cafe; was attacked, Cama Hospital was attacked. That was it. So what actually happened inside Cama Hospital, we didn't know. The reporting didn't end on the 26th - it continued. Taj was under siege, so the next few days had more reportage, rightfully so. But what actually happened inside Cama, I had no idea either."
The film shows how the nurses not only fought bravely but also acted wisely to protect the hospital and its patients as much as they could.
In fact, Kangana Ranaut's character is a fictionalised version of nurse Anjali Kulthe, who was at Cama Hospital on the night of the attack. She shut ward doors, hid 20 pregnant women in the pantry and even took an active labour patient to the operating theatre, risking her own life.
All the other nurses - Girija Oak as Sheetal Revagade, Smita Tambe as Trupti Takle, and Esha Dey as Babita Adsule - fought their own battles that night. Each served in different wards, terrified but never compromising their duty as medical professionals or the oath they took. That's precisely what makes the film so hard-hitting.
And as NDTV wrote in its review, "Kangana Ranaut did not let the movie become bigger than her" - and neither did any of the other stellar cast members, who leave a lasting impression.
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