Aditya Dhar on 'How's the josh?': Didn't expect it to be such a rage

Vicky Kaushal in Uri

When acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal asked 'How's the josh?' during his Interim Budget speech last week, it only reaffirmed that Bollywood had, once again, given a new catchphrase to the country. After Jadoo Ki Jhappi from Sanjay Dutt's Munna Bhai MBBS (2003), Chak De! India from Shah Rukh Khan's 2007 film by the same name and All Izz Well from the track in the Aamir Khan-starrer 3 Idiots (2009), Vicky Kaushal's dialogue from Uri: The Surgical Strike has now found popularity among the audience.

Aditya Dhar

"I don't know how it caught on," beams writer-director Aditya Dhar, whose dialogue has become part of daily lingo, with everyone from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Indian cricket team squad to college students mouthing it. "We did not expect it to be such a rage. I thought it was a great dialogue for Major Vihan Shergill [Kaushal's character]; a line to raise the josh of the guys in the regiment. Now, it is being mouthed by the young and old."

The debutant director is happy to note that it has resonated strongly with the audience. "It is encouraging people who are going through emotional upheavals or are physically tired. It is being used as a phrase to raise spirits, and that's a beautiful feeling."

Dhar reveals that the dialogue stemmed from his childhood memory when he would visit Army camps along with his friends whose parents were in the Armed Forces. "Army officers used to say it to encourage their troops, but it was not something that was widely used. The memory stuck on, and made its way into the film."

Also Read: Vicky Kaushal, Yami Gautam, Mohit Raina and Kriti Kulhari at Uri success bash

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