In “Fighter,” director Siddharth Anand explains why Pakistan was the adversary
The man behind the new movie Fighter, Siddharth Anand, is a filmmaker who has shared a personal look at the influences and deeply patriotic feelings that went into making it.
In an interview with Galatta Plus (as cited by Indian Express), Siddharth expressed his intense patriotism, stressing that he is “fiercely patriotic.” The film has Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone in the key roles and tackles hyper-nationalistic topics. The filmmaker emphasized how Fighter’s fury was stoked by the Pulwama assault in 2019, which acted as a spark for the story.
At a crucial point in the story of Fighter, the filmmaker sets up a confrontation between Hrithik Roshan’s character, Patty, and Rishabh Sawhney’s character, Azhar. This scene, especially in the aftermath of Pathaan, is a significant change from Siddharth’s prior directorial endeavors as it provides a dynamic platform for the hero to express his intense hyper-nationalistic thoughts. Fighter’s cinematic landscape gains an intriguing layer from the director’s honest admission of this thematic change.
The director talked candidly about his strong sense of patriotism and the sources of inspiration for his movie Fighter during the conversation. “I am deeply patriotic—not particularly nationalistic, perhaps, but deeply patriotic nonetheless,” he said. Siddharth said that he cries while listening to Border’s songs and acknowledged his emotional affinity to classic war movies like Haqeeqat. He even wondered if he had been a soldier in a previous life. The filmmaker remarked, “Those lines are actually me, I wouldn’t lie,” in reference to Patty’s dialogue. The reason for this is that, in my own unique way, I genuinely feel these things and want to express them.
Siddharth, a director descended from Mukul and Tinnu Anand, expressed his admiration for the dramatic flair found in Hindi movies, especially the dialogue-heavy scenes referred to as “dialogue-baazi.” “Dialogue-baazi is what I love to do and I very rarely get an opportunity to do that in my films,” he said. Moreover, he said that Patty might understand the lines in context. “It’s not like they are doing it for their lifestyle because their paycheque is so big,” he said.
The director also discussed why Pakistan was chosen to be the enemy in the movie, pointing out that the audience needed to be able to identify the character. He stated that he preferred to anchor the story in reality rather than presenting a fully fictionalized image of the Air Force. “I wanted to ground it because I was certain that I didn’t want to make a fictional film on the Air Force in a genre that is anyway a little alien to us,” he stated.
Siddharth went on to say that the Pulwama incident acted as a spur for the movie, admitting that some aspects had to be fictionalized while yet being connected to actual events. “Pulwama was an incident that really infuriated me,” he continued. What they did was like a movie waiting to happen. Obviously, a lot of the surrounding details had to be made up. We only had to identify the organization that carried out the act; nothing more.
I am a dedicated student currently in my seventh semester, pursuing a degree in International Relations. Alongside my academic pursuits, I am actively engaged in the professional field as a content writer at the Rangeinn website.
