Born – 19 July 1827
Died – 8 April 1857

Achievements – A sepoy working under the British East India Company, Mangal Pandey’s name got etched into the pages of the Indian history after he attacked his senior British officers in an incident, which is today remembered as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the India’s First War of Independence. The reason behind this was the rumor that the cartridges used by Indian sepoys were greased with the fat of cow and pig.

It was a celebrity push for the Indian Army when it got itself a brand ambassador by enlisting southern superstar Mohanlal as an honorary Lt Colonel in the Territorial Army. And for once, it was the celebrated film actor who had stars in his eyes.

“It is an amazing moment. My family is with me in one of the best moments of my life,” Mohanlal said.

Mohanlal Joining Army

In reel life Mohanlal tackled the role of an Army man in two recent films. The successful Keerthi Chakra in 2006 saw him don the role of a Major while more recently in Kurukshetra he played a Colonel fighting the Kargil war.

Indian Army  suffered normal  rate of  casualty attrition,  despite the terribly difficult terrain and having to  physically assault every sanghar and  bunker of the enemy. Casualties were  reduced due to the  intense use of Firepower  of the artillery and direct firing weapons like rocket launchers and missiles that were more effective in destroying targets pin pointedly than indirect fire. Artillery innovated new methods to  provide support to the  assaulting troops even to  the last few yards by  resorting to direct fire  with the Bofors guns  and missiles.

Army used heavy concentration of artillery fire to soften up the enemy  position before the  assaults were  launched. At  one time  120 artillery guns (including Bofors) were supporting  a single battalion  attack, a density  even perhaps the Russian Army  cannot dream  of. The  total casualties  figures during the Kargil operations (Operation  Vijay) are  as given  here. Officers  JCOs Soldiers Total Killed 29 23 475 527 Wounded 66 60 1,085 1211 The performance of the  regimental officers,  JCOs  and  soldiers  in  the  Kargil  war  was  unsurpassed.  Officer casualties were out of all proportion  to those in the various wars  since 1939.