Actor Vivaan Shah says it was a blessing to portray a real life character like Captain Vijendra Malhotra in filmmaker Sriram Raghavan’s war drama “Ikkis” and a significant part of his performance was inspired by his uncle, retired Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah.In the critically-acclaimed war drama, which centres on India’s youngest Param Vir Chakra awardee Arun Khetrapal who was martyred during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Shah played his sharp and composed senior officer, Captain Malhotra. His performance has been lauded for offering a counterpoint to Khetrapal’s raw intensity as a battle-ready greenhorn officer.Shah, son of veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, said he has always been enamoured by his uncle’s dynamic and formidable personality.”I based the character, a great deal of it, on my father’s older brother, Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah, who actually fought in the Battle of Longewala.”He’s a very dynamic personality. And I really sort of drew on that a great deal and also from the real-life Captain Vijendra Malhotra, who himself was an extraordinarily charismatic person. I never, of course, got to meet him, unfortunately. But I studied his photographs and the information available,” Shah told PTI in an interview.The film, which recently started streaming on Prime Video following its release in theatres in January, features Agastya Nanda, Dharmendra and Jaideep Ahlawat.The actor said while he tried his best to authentically depict Malhotra in a “truthful and honest” manner, a lot of it required him to fill in with his imagination.”This is the first time I’ve really got to play a really dynamic, smart and cool figure. And that, for me, was a real blessing. That was one of the great joys of playing Captain Vijay Malhotra,” he said.The film will always hold a special place in his filmography as it marks his first collaboration with Sriram Raghavan, a filmmaker he has long admired.Yet the experience also comes with a regret — the actor couldn’t meet Dharmendra, his father’s favourite hero who passed away at the age of 89 in November last year.In the film, Dharmendra portrays Khetarpal’s father, retired Brigadier Madan Lal Khetarpal, who years after his son’s death travels to Pakistan to visit his ancestral village in Sargodha.”Our storylines didn’t intersect. They almost took place in two parallel timelines in a sense. And it’s one of the great regrets of my life that I didn’t get to meet Dharmendraji, who’s one of my heroes and who’s also a hero for my father because my father grew up watching his films in the early 60s, from ‘Haqeeqat’ and ‘Phool Aur Pathar’ to so many of the wonderful films in the early 60s. Dharmendraji, to my father, was really a sort of Herculean figure, a screen idol, as it were,” Shah said.In fact, Naseeruddin Shah had penned a moving tribute for the late cinema icon after his death.Shah said his parents really loved the movie, his performance and its anti-war theme.”They really liked that I played a different kind of character and they really loved the film… It’s an anti-war film, essentially it’s a humane film. And that’s what really touched their hearts very deeply about the film,” he said, adding that Dharmendra’s final scene in the movie deeply moved his father.”It hit him emotionally, it was very cathartic because it somehow also serves as a very nice goodbye to Dharmendraji. We didn’t know that he’s going to… His last lines in the film are ‘Rab rakha’,” he said.Shah said every time he watches the film, he is surprised by the emotional intensity of the story.”The primary attraction for me was the opportunity to work with Sriram Raghavan sir and to be a part of such a beautiful story. Of course, the fact that it was a film with such a beautiful theme. I wouldn’t call it a message because art should ideally not have a message. It should be more than that because otherwise it runs the risk of becoming didactic.” Shah said while Nanda and many of the other young actors went through a full-fledged NDA training, he went to the Armoured Corps Centre in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar for a basic training with the tank crew.”We basically did PT, drills, march past, a lot of military activities, also a radio communication class, understanding how the nuts and bolts of a tank works. Also there is this thing called a tank simulator which is a sort of computerized mechanism by which you can understand how to fire a tank, how to aim, how to reload, how to shoot again.”We got to drive a real tank which was one of the most surreal experiences. When I was driving the real tank, I was literally pinching myself to see if this is a dream or if it’s actually happening.”While many believe Raghavan, known for his mastery in thrillers such as “Ek Hasina Thi”, “Johnny Gaddaar”, “Badlapur” and “Andhadhun”, has taken a different path by telling a real life story with “Ikkis”, Shah wouldn’t necessarily call it a departure.Comparing the filmmaker with great American directors like Samuel Fuller, Anthony Mann, Don Siegel, Robert Aldrich, Sam Peckinpah and John Sturges, the actor said “Ikkis” is a logical extension to Raghavan’s filmography.”A lot of people feel that it is a departure for Sriram sir but it’s not…. These filmmakers were the architects of the genre of film noir.”Film noir is a genre which is primarily associated with Sriram sir in our cinema. Now those filmmakers, they were all World War II combat veterans. They made film noirs, crime films, gangster films, westerns and they also all made war films. So in a sense, Sriram sir is continuing on a beautiful tradition of filmmakers.”Shah, who has already worked with filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap (“Bombay Velvet”) and Vishal Bhardwaj (“7 Khoon Maaf” and series “Charlie Chopra”), said he has always believed in the popular saying — “an actor does not always select the films, the films select the actor”.”There are certain kinds of films that I do want to do. But I’m not presumptuous enough to think that I might get those films. I would just like to do those roles,” he said.