A new Bollywood film spotlights a forgotten India-China battle

A recent Bollywood film has put the spotlight on a largely forgotten battle from the 1962 war between India and China.

Called 120 Bahadur – Hindi for brave hearts – the film tells the story of Indian soldiers who fought valiantly to defend the Rezang La pass in the freezing Himalayan mountains of Ladakh, BBC reports. The film, with Farhan Akhtar as Major Shaitan Singh, failed at the box office but succeeded in spotlighting a battle often described as the only silver lining in a war India lost.

"We felt it was very important that this story must he told, we wanted to honour the people who lived the story," dialogue writer Sumit Arora told the BBC. "We have taken some cinematic liberties, but our film stays very true to history." The war came as the relationship between India and China had been souring over border tensions and meetings to resolve the disputes had been unsuccessful. Beijing was also unhappy over India giving refuge to the Dalai Lama who had fled Tibet after the 1959 uprising.

The month-long war started on 20 October with China attacking India. Beijing said it was "a self-defence counter-attack" and accused Delhi of "aggressively encroaching on Chinese territory and violating Chinese airspace". By the time China declared a unilateral ceasefire a month later - pulling back troops and releasing prisoners of war - India had lost about 7,000 soldiers and 38,000 sq km of territory. The two countries were later separated by an ill-defined 3,440km (2,100-mile) Line of Actual Control, marked in places by rivers, lakes and snowcaps.

Beijing has said little officially about the war, beyond claiming its troops eliminated all Indian positions in the conflict zones, and has never commented on the battle of Rezang La.

Fought at over 16,000ft (4,900m), it was one battle in a wider war China won. In India, however, it is remembered as an "epic battle" and "one of the greatest last stands" and inspired books and films.