No similarity between ‘Uri…’, ’72 Hours…: Shishir Sharma

Mumbai, Jan 6 (IANS) Actor Shishir Sharma says that there is no similarity between "Uri - The Surgical Strike" and his forthcoming film "72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died".

"72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died" is based on the life of Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat, who has attained the status of a deity on the Sino-Indian border.

"Uri", on the other hand, is based on the Indian Army's 2016 surgical strikes inside Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in retaliation for the Uri attack.

Asked about the striking similarities between the trailers of "Uri - The Surgical Strike" and "72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died", Shishir said: "I have worked in 'Uri - The Surgical Strike' and '72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died' so, I can say that in 'Uri', the surgical strike was a planned strike."

"It was decided that there would be a surgical strike. But in this film, it wasn't pre-planned. The film's central character, Jaswant Singh Rawat, fought for 72 hours so, both are completely different films," he told media here on Saturday.

Further explaining, he said: "There was certain amount of resistance from him to not allow the Chinese troops to come into the Indian territory so, it was not a planned surgical strike. In fact, it was probably a single army surgical strike.

"He did not have any instruction from anybody to kill 300 soldiers which is a huge number so, I don't think there should be any comparison between this film and 'Uri'."

Shishir has been working in films, television and web shows since many years.

Asked what changes he has observed in TV shows and films, he said: "I started my film career with 'Satya' with Ram Gopal Varma and I started my television career with Mahesh Bhatt in 'Swabhimaan'.

"Television has seen regression and it is always going to be like that. There is not going to be any kind of improvement because I don't think they want any kind of improvement in terms of television viewing and the viewership that they have."

He added that now, younger filmmakers have a sense of making content-driven films.

He said: "But in terms of cinema, now the kind of cinema that is coming is obviously good content cinema. Gone are the days when stars used to rule the roost. Now, it is content-driven cinema that is going to rule the roost completely.

"I think the younger filmmakers have the sense of creating that good content cinema for the audience."

"Audiences are also changing because that plays an important part. You can create as much content-driven films as you like, but if the audience is not going to come in theatres then, there is really no point.

"I have done films like 'Raazi', 'Dangal' and 'Mary Kom'. All these are iconic films. 'Uri - The Surgical Strike' and '72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died' add to the list of iconic films that I have done. I am happy that I am part of these five films that will go down in history of Indian cinema."