- Indian Air Force (IAF) has protested that the movie Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl starring Janhvi Kapoor portrays the work culture in the Air Force in a “negative light” and being discriminatory towards women officers.
- The movie is based on the life of Flt. Lt. (Retd) Gunjan Saxena who was born on 31 August 1975 is an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer and former helicopter pilot. She joined the IAF in 1994, is a 1999 Kargil War veteran and the first woman Shaurya Chakra awardee. She joined Indian Air Force after attaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Hansraj College, Delhi University. She is the only woman to be part of the Kargil War, making her the first woman IAF officer to go to war. She is the first of two women along with Flight Lieutenant Srividya Rajan from the IAF to enter a war zone flying Cheetah helicopters.
- It has been produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. The movie is right now being streamed on Netflix.
- “IAF as a service has always ensured that the organization is gender neutral and has always provided an equal opportunity to both male and women personnel,” said IAF in a letter to CBFC.
- Last month, the defence ministry had written to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Information Technology ministry, and ministry of Information and Broadcasting to advise production houses to obtain a “no objection” certificate from the ministry of defence before the telecast of any film, documentary, web series on the Indian army theme.
- The ministry had received some complaints raising strong objections about the portrayal of Indian Army personnel and the military uniform in an “insulting manner”, they said.
