The next morning we headed out to recce locations for important sequences that had to be shot for the show. I was primarily interested to see the stage show area and the first spot that Lt Col Dabolkar took us to, was an open volley ball ground. The ground could’ve made for a great background with direct view of the landscape but we were looking for something indoors, the weather was a little unpredictable with erratic rain showers and we didn’t want to set up and have a wash out. Of course another one of our worries was the occurrence of tremendous wind storms. The speed was such that most of our equipment (and mind you it’s not exactly light weight) would have floated like gas balloons! After seeing a few bunkers we finally settled with a generator workshop which would be emptied and cleaned for us to put up our set.

 Then we headed for Sando Top - one of the important watch points during the war for of its height and elevation. This was further up from Drass and situated at an altitude of 15000ft. Drass is a high altitude cold desert with a low level of atmospheric oxygen. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that visitors coming from the plains give themselves sufficient time for acclimatization before engaging in any physical activity. We were advised by the officers to walk slowly and drink lots of water. Nearly all of us felt a mild headache which subsided by day 2 and while we were at Sando top, I also got slightly breathless. It began to snow profusely, not natural for this time of the year but it made for good visuals so we hoped that it snows during the shoot (Of course I had to borrow an army jacket and felt like an Eskimo all packed up!)

It was 3rd late evening and the rest of our crew from Bombay with the star team (Abhishek Bachchan with his friend and PR person) had arrived. Lt Col Dabolkar had organized a dinner party for everyone. We wrapped up as early as possible, 4th was going to be the day of the shoot. I was still a trifle subdued at the party because of my cold induced stupor.

We split groups in the morning, show producers with Rupali (anchor of the show) headed to shoot activities with Abhishek and the PCR (Production Control Room) crew and engineers headed for the Stage Show location. We had a set to put up and plenty of cables to install to get our equipment started. We decided to set up our PCR in a Shaktiman Truck. The equipment which had come from cargo was packed in this truck and brought to the location. We unpacked and arranged everything in the truck itself. All went well till afternoon, everything was going on schedule. The set was coming up well, even though heavy rain in the evening slowed us considerably.

The rest of the crew with Abhishek arrived and we were meant to roll the show in half an hour.  We were at the concluding stage of our set up and ready to do checks. Just then I was told that the projector screen that was hired from Delhi was all crumpled up; we made our own with gateway paper knowing that hardly anyone would be wiser for it. After this got sorted, the engineers were having a hard time fixing the alignment of the image on to projector screen; they took so long to fix it, that by this time, several other problems cropped up. One VTR (Video Tape Recorder) which had to be used as a player stopped working. Another which was a recorder started chewing tape. The DVD player got stuck, anchor talkback wasn’t working. Camera people could barely hear me.

As we approached roll time, there was panic and chaos in the PCR, while Abhishek was ready and waiting to start the show.  We reallocated some of our machines to make do with what was working and after being told by Arati (supervising producer) that we shouldn’t delay any further, we began to roll.

Only about 3 minutes into the show, my video switcher began to give a problem. I called out for Sudarshan (Engineer) who was in the thick of 10 other problems. Next thing I know, I couldn’t hear Prem Singh (camera person) on talkback and each time I tried talking to him, he moved his camera frantically to indicate that he’s heard what I said. My hands trembled. I’m not sure if it was the cold or the incredulity of the situation. I screamed most part of the show, but my camera people gave me some great shots.

The show itself went off reasonably well but with what I would term as condonable hiccups. One of the most crucial highpoints of the show, the clippings where we play messages from the families of the jawans in the unit was a simmering disaster. An exercise which generally takes a few seconds to coordinate and play was running into minutes and was a source of constant tension to all of us in the PCR. This coupled with the anchor not being able to hear cues only added to my misery. Had Rupali and I not discussed the show format beforehand and had she not been remarkably quick on the uptake in picking up the cues on her own, the show wouldn’t have looked as smooth as it did on-air.  Thankfully the chaos in the PCR was not visible to the audience as they had no prior benchmarks to compare with at that stage. Also I am sure the audience was numbed with the sheer charm that our resident celebrity, Abhishek Bachchan was exuding. The fact that AB had played a pivotal role in LOC Kargil and had actually shot on those locations also naturally endeared him to the jawans.

The show finally ended, and I was talking to Sudarshan about how things went wrong. Right then I heard someone say “Dude, you were blowing rockets”! I turned and saw Abhishek inside the truck who pretended to look scared! I guess he heard me at points when I was screaming. I smiled (for the lack or anything better to do!) and he shook our hands and said “thank you”. While I was smashing my image with Abhishek to smithereens, it was a difficult pack up for Sudarshan who was still trying to figure why things went out of hand. It took us over 7 hours to pack up on that dark cold night. 

Next morning we headed back to Srinagar to fly back to Delhi, with many lessons learnt and experiences that we would cherish for well.. a long time.

I started working on Jai Jawan shortly after I joined NDTV in 2004. It’s a show that has taught me in various ways most of what I know. I can safely say that it made me a producer in the real sense of the word. Overpowering pressure and compelling deadlines accompany every shoot, every episode that we’ve done.  But all peripheral tensions during the production get reimbursed when a good show is put on-air, and that joy is unmatched. What can I say; such is the power of Television.