KOCHI: The movie ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl’ has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. After the film portrayed Flight Lieutenant (retd) Gunjan Saxena as the first woman pilot to fly in combat, Flight Lieutenant Sreevidya Rajan (retd), through a Facebook post, contested the claim. She wrote: “In the movie, Gunjan Saxena was shown as the only lady pilot to fly in Kargil operations. This is factually incorrect. We were posted together to Udhampur and when the Kargil conflict started, I was the first woman pilot to be sent along with the male counterparts in the first detachment of our unit which was deployed at Srinagar.”
After Sreevidya’s post went viral, Gunjan responded by saying that her name was projected as the first woman to fly for IAF in a conflict zone after a media interaction at the end of Kargil war. Reacting to this, Sreevidya told TNIE: “I have seen reports of Gunjan being portrayed as the first woman in combat earlier, but I did not respond to that because I did not want any publicity for serving my country.
Secondly, our journey in IAF was a joint effort where we fought for our place among men and for gender equality. Now, I cannot forget those ideals to claim my share of fame. I reacted only after the movie released because they have erased me from history.” Stating that she and Gunjan were course mates, Sreevidya says: “We were both posted at Udhampur in 1996 but in the movie, it was shown that she was the only woman pilot posted at the unit.
I find it difficult to accept this distortion of facts. Serving in the IAF was not a cakewalk for me. I have struggled too. I cannot allow anyone to take that away from me. Visual media is a powerful medium and can influence the public. This is why I decided that I had to speak out.” Maintaining that the burden of proof does not lie on her, the pilot from Palakkad says: “Air Force maintains flying log books which have the details of missions, pilots and crew. The IAF can access those and clear this controversy.”
Commenting on the purported sexism shown in the movie, she adds: “We did face opposition from a few male colleagues, but there were enough officers to support us. In Kargil operations, male pilots had flown extensively and faced more hardships than us. But they never got or sought any publicity. The film has portrayed IAF in a negative way and it will demotivate the next generation. I want to inspire them to join the force. Nobody will mistreat you or humiliate you. It’s an elite organisation where everyone is treated with respect.”