Uri: The Surgical Strike - Aditya Dhar was directing Fawad Khan in debut film before the real surgical strike happened

Vicky Kaushal was a star in the making with films like Masan, Sanju and Raazi getting him noticed by the audience until Uri: The Surgical Strike happened. The film turned the actor’s career around overnight as a surprise hit and today the movie has completed 3 years since it first arrived in cinemas.

The movie is based on India’s surgical strikes on Pakistani terror bases in response to the attack on the Indian Army ’s Uri base in Jammu and Kashmir, in September 2016. While the movie may be based on the strikes, the events of September 2016 had a wider influence on the Indian entertainment industry too with the Pakistani artists getting banned from working in Bollywood.

Before the ban, Uri: The Surgical Strike filmmaker Aditya Dhar had very different plans for his directorial debut in Bollywood. The filmmaker was busy prepping for a film titled Raat Baaki featuring Pakistani star Fawad Khan and actress Katrina Kaif . With the overnight ban on Pakistani actors, the project came to a halt and led Aditya to research deeply on what had happened at Uri.

The filmmaker then pursued the subject as a script instead of dwelling on his shelved project due to the strikes.

Post the release of Uri in 2019, Aditya had spoken about switching gears from making Raat Baaki with Fawad to making Uri: The Surgical Strike with Vicky. "I learnt in this industry that whatever the adversity, you have to just push yourself and change the situation in your favour. When the surgical strikes happened and Pakistani artistes were banned, everyone was sad that our film won't get made,” the filmmaker had told PTI in an interview.

"I wanted to know what happened during the attacks because that sounded like a great story. That switch happened very fast. It is the only way to survive in this industry, it is difficult, you have to be mentally strong. No matter what, you've to always keep the josh high," Aditya had added.

Uri: The Surgical Strike grossed nearly Rs. 250 crores at the box office and also earned Aditya and Vicky their very first National Awards. The film also starred Yami Gautam in a key role who is now married to the filmmaker. In 2021 it was reported that the director will revive Raat Baaki with his wife and actor Pratik Gandhi but will be backing the film just as a producer and not a director.