Debutante Sharvari opens up on “The Forgotten Army”

“The Forgotten Army” is writer director Kabir Khan’s tribute to one of the strongest and forgotten armies of India, Azad Hind Sena. The web series is based on the contributions of Azad Hind Sena; Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s pre Independence army.

Debutante Sharvari, who will be seen in Kabir Khan's directorial says that the shooting process for the show was physically challenging and that she has given her "blood, sweat and flesh" to the project.

In the "The Forgotten Army", she plays a key member of the famed Azad Hind Fauj or the Indian National Army (INA) that fought against the British in a bid to free India.

"I think the entire team has given their blood, flesh and sweat to the project. It was a demanding shoot and the entire cast, men or women, had to endure the same level of physical challenges that pushed us to our maximum and tested our will power. There were no shortcuts for anyone and none of us expected to have it either," Sharvari said.

Sharvari has trained with around 100 girls from the National Cadet Corps to get into the skin of her character and train herself physically for the role. She learnt how to use a rifle and bayonet charges, how to hold the rifles at all times, while at war or at ease and learnt body postures while shooting the rifles.

"I remember that my hands got cut every single day when I was firing the real rifles. Every time we had to put bullets (cock the rifles) into those rifles, flesh would be pulled out of our hands because we were using the ones from the era," she says.

"Kabir sir was clear to us that we had to give our 200 percent and I relished that challenge. For me, I simply channelized Maya (character) in me. Whenever we had a physically challenging shoot, I thought what would Maya do in this situation and slowly all the pain, all the bruises, all the drops of blood seemed insignificant. It is so inspiring to know how much this forgotten army endured and we have tried our best to honour them with all our heart," she said.

Sharvari will also be seen sharing screen space with Siddhant Chaturvedi, Rani Mukerjee and Saif Ali Khan in the second instalment of "Bunty Aur Babli".

“The Forgotten Army” is Amazon’s Prime’s next upcoming web series.