Move over Tom Cruise, Janhvi Kapoor actually flew a helicopter for Gunjan Saxena biopic: ‘I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this’

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this,” Janhvi Kapoor said, “but I got to fly a chopper for Gunjan Saxena.” Janhvi made the revelation during a recent interview with journalist Rajeev Masand. Janhvi plays IAF pilot Gunjan Saxena in the upcoming biopic, which also stars Pankaj Tripathi in a supporting role.

When Masand asked incredulously if she actually flew the chopper herself, Janhvi continued, “I had a pilot with me -- Francesco, who’s helicopter it was -- but I ended up spending so many hours in the chopper that he was like ‘you know what to do so I’m going to hand over the controls.’”

Asked if the experience petrified her, Janhvi said, “Before we shot all of the aerial stuff, we’d spent a year shooting the film, and almost everyday I was saying things like ‘Mujhe udna hai, mujhe pilot banna hai (I want to fly, I want to be a pilot)’, and even though they’re dialogues you believe it somewhere.”

She added, “When I finally sat in the chopper everyone in the team got teary eyed. It was a very emotional journey.”

Janhvi made her Bollywood debut with 2018’s Dhadak, opposite Ishaan Khatter. The film was received positively by critics and audiences, although Janhvi admitted that the house was divided on her performance. She followed it up with the lead role in Zoya Akhtar’s segment in Netflix’s anthology horror film, Ghost Stories. Janhvi has three films lined up for release in 2020 -- RoohiAfzana, Dostana 2 and Kargil Girl. She will begin filming Karan Johar’s period epic, Takht, next month.

Much was written about actor Tom Cruise flying a helicopter for Mission: Impossible - Fallout. “Every camera position has been designed so that you can see Tom is doing everything,” a crew member had said in a behind-the-scenes video. “Tom doesn’t want to sit in a greenscreen. The audiences can tell when something’s being cheated.”

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