Uri: The Surgical Strike Won Four National Film Awards, Including Best Direction for Aditya Dhar and a Shared Best Actor Award for Vicky Kaushal, for a Film Built on the Army's Announcement of 29 September 2016

Uri: The Surgical Strike won four awards at the 66th National Film Awards, announced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 9 August 2019: Best Direction for Aditya Dhar, a shared Best Actor award for Vicky Kaushal, Best Audiography and Best Music Direction for its background score. The Hindi film had opened on 11 January 2019, and Bollywood Hungama’s trade report put its estimated collection at Rs 106.84 crore (a crore is ten million rupees) after ten days.

Its subject is the operation that Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, the Army’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), announced in New Delhi on 29 September 2016, eleven days after the attack on the Army base at Uri. This article sets the film’s record beside the text of that statement.

The four awards, as the ministry listed them

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) release of 9 August 2019 names Uri in four places.

Best Direction went to Aditya Dhar, who directed the film as his first feature (IANS, December 2018). The award is a Swarna Kamal, the Golden Lotus, with Rs 2.5 lakh. The jury’s citation says the film handled the challenge of telling a true story of military action realistically, with clarity and effectiveness.

Best Actor was shared between Vicky Kaushal for Uri and Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun. Each received a Rajat Kamal, the Silver Lotus, and a share of Rs 50,000. The jury cited Kaushal for conveying a realistic Army officer.

Best Audiography was given to three films, and for Uri it went to the sound designer, Bishwadeep Dipak Chatterjee. Best Music Direction was given to two people: Sanjay Leela Bhansali for the songs of Padmaavat, and Shashwat Sachdev for Uri’s background music, which the jury said gave the film the right atmosphere.

What the Army announced on 29 September 2016

The statement is headed “Press Statement by DGMO Indian Army on surgical strikes” and is dated New Delhi, 29 September 2016. The News Minute reported it at 12:36 pm that day from a joint news conference of the DGMO and the Ministry of External Affairs, and said the strikes took place on the Wednesday night, 28 September.

The statement begins with infiltration. It says infiltration across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir had been continuing and increasing, and it cites the terrorist attacks at Punch on 11 September and at Uri on 18 September 2016, plus almost 20 infiltration attempts foiled that year. The Tribune’s account of the Uri attack gives the toll as 19 soldiers and records that India blamed the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed.

It then lists what the Army says it recovered and learned. Items including GPS devices pointed to a Pakistani origin, and captured terrorists had confessed to training and arming in Pakistan or territory under its control. India had offered Pakistan consular access to those captured and had proposed sharing fingerprints and DNA samples of the terrorists killed at Punch and Uri.

The central paragraph is short. Acting on specific and credible inputs that terrorist teams had positioned themselves at launch pads along the Line of Control, the Army conducted surgical strikes at several of those launch pads to pre-empt infiltration. Significant casualties were caused to terrorists and those supporting them.

The statement closes with three further points. The operations had ceased and there were no plans to continue them, though the armed forces were prepared for any contingency. The DGMO had been in touch with his Pakistan Army counterpart and told him of the action. India wanted peace in the region and expected the Pakistan Army to cooperate in ending terrorism, in line with Pakistan’s commitment of January 2004.

How this announcement sits among India’s other responses to major attacks since 2001 is traced in how India answers an attack. The armed forces’ announced operation of May 2025 is covered in Operation Sindoor.

What the statement leaves to the film

The statement names no soldier, unit, commander or location. It gives no casualty figure for either side and does not describe how the strikes were carried out. The scenes, characters and sequence of events that the film shows are therefore the filmmakers’ own reconstruction.

Gulf News describes the story: after the attack on Army camps at Uri kills 19 soldiers, an Army officer, Major Vihaan Shergill, played by Kaushal, takes part in the strikes on militant camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The cast also includes Yami Gautam as an intelligence officer, Kirti Kulhari as a fighter pilot, Paresh Rawal as Shergill’s superior and Rajit Kapoor as the Prime Minister.

Critics were open about the line between record and invention. Anupama Chopra of Film Companion called the film a fictionalised version of the events and wrote that she could not tell how much of it had actually happened. Gulf News labelled it “based on true events” and did not assess how closely it follows them. Dhar told IANS in December 2018 that he made the film to pay tribute to the Army, and that it takes a stand against terrorism and does not portray Pakistanis badly.

The film’s release and box office

Uri opened on 11 January 2019. Sacnilk lists it as a Hindi film of 2 hours 18 minutes, directed by Dhar and produced by Ronnie Screwvala under the RSVP Movies banner.

Bollywood Hungama reported a first-day collection of Rs 8.20 crore and an estimated Rs 106.84 crore by the tenth day. Trade figures for the full run differ between outlets. Sacnilk lists an India net of Rs 244.14 crore, an India gross of Rs 293.75 crore and a worldwide gross of Rs 341.75 crore, and says its numbers can be approximate.

Gulf News gave the film 3.5 out of 5 and praised its restrained handling of the military action. Film Companion’s headline calls it a love letter to the Army.

Where the two governments’ accounts differ

Pakistan did not accept India’s description. The News Minute reported on 29 September 2016 that Pakistan’s military media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), denied that surgical strikes had taken place and called the idea an illusion created by India. The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson, at the briefing the same day, spoke of unprovoked violations of the Line of Control by Indian security forces, and noted an ISPR statement that two Pakistani army personnel had died. The spokesperson added that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had condemned the unprovoked breach of the agreement on the Line of Control. India’s own statement of that day gives no casualty count.

What the winners said

On 9 August 2019 The Quint reported that Dhar dedicated his award to the soldiers of the country, and that Kaushal said he was happy to share the Best Actor award with Khurrana.