As Salman Khan's Battle of Galwan teaser sparks a sharp reaction from China's state media, the spotlight is back on the film's origins and the intense groundwork behind it.
Long before the diplomatic pushback and social media storm, director Apoorva Lakhia had opened up in a 2025 podcast about why this project matters deeply to him.
A War Story That Demanded To Be Told
Speaking to Cyrus Broacha, Apoorva Lakhia had revealed that the film is his first collaboration with Salman Khan and that it's rooted in real events from Ladakh.
At the time, he said, "Now I'm working on a film called Galwan, which is a true story based on the India-China conflict, which took place in 2020 in Ladakh."
The filmmaker had stressed that the project was never conceived as a routine war spectacle but as a story drawn from one of the most brutal modern-day confrontations between the two countries.
"It's the greatest battle to be fought where more than 80 people lost their lives without a single bullet being fired in -30 degrees," he said.
He further added that the Indian side had emerged victorious despite heavy losses. "India had won the battle, where the Indian army executed around 54 of the Chinese troops, at the cost of losing 24 of our lives," Lakhia had stated in the podcast.
The director had also spoken about the exhaustive preparation that went into shaping Battle of Galwan, long before the teaser's release ignited geopolitical debate.
"We have been doing research for two years. It's based on Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh's book; they're both journalists," Lakhia had revealed, making it clear that the film was built on detailed reporting rather than hearsay.
The film is scheduled to hit the big screens on April 17, 2026.
Here's How India Reacted To China's Criticism
India on Tuesday reiterated that filmmakers in the country enjoy full creative liberty, after Chinese state media accused Salman Khan's upcoming war drama Battle of Galwan of misrepresenting historical events.
New Delhi has officially stated that 20 Indian soldiers were killed during the fierce hand-to-hand combat. Beijing initially denied suffering any losses before later asserting that four of its troops had died - a figure India has consistently viewed as a serious understatement.
Meanwhile, China's state-run Global Times published an article claiming that the depiction of the 2020 confrontation in the movie "do not align with the facts."
The report added, "The Bollywood films at most provide an entertainment-driven, emotionally charged portrayal, but no amount of cinematic exaggeration can rewrite the history or shake the PLA's determination to defend China's sovereign territory."
The Global Times article also asserted that the Galwan Valley lies on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control and placed the blame for the clash on Indian forces, alleging that they had crossed the LAC and triggered the confrontation - a position that New Delhi firmly rejects.