Uri: The Surgical Strike actor Vicky Kaushal will play war hero Sam Manekshaw in Meghna Gulzar’s biopic, producer RSVP Movies announced on Thursday. Manekshaw joined the British army in the 1930s and served India with distinction after Independence. He was the Chief of the Army Staff during the 1971 Indo-Pak War and retired as Field Marshal from the services in 1973.
“Ours is not a biopic, because it does not chronologically just record Sam Manekshaw’s life,” Gulzar told Mumbai Mirror. The screenplay by Bhavani Iyer and Shantanu Srivastava will highlight “crucial, iconic and relevant incidents” from Manekshaw’s life, Gulzar added.
On the death anniversary of one of India's greatest war heroes, we take immense pride and honor in announcing our next movie, starring @vickykaushal09 as Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw! Directed by @meghnagulzar.
— RSVPMovies (@RSVPMovies) June 27, 2019
Produced By @RonnieScrewvala. pic.twitter.com/cpPdJzAjTu
The biopic will get underway in 2021. Meghna Gulzar, whose films include Talvar (2015) and Raazi (2018), is wrapping up Chhapaak, a biopic of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. Chhapaak stars Deepika Padukone and will be released on January 10, 2020.
Kaushal is starring in another biopic, of Indian revolutionary Udham Singh. Shoojit Sircar’s movie will be released in October 2020.