New Delhi: Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri on Thursday announced his new film on Operation Sindoor—India’s military strike against Pakistan in May last year, following the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 25 tourists on 22 April. The Kashmir Files director, in a social media post, said the film will be based on Lt Gen Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon’s book Operation Sindoor: The Untold Story of India’s Deep Strikes Inside Pakistan, released in September 2025.
The film will be produced by Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series and Agnihotri’s I Am Budha Productions.
“Rooted in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and backed by extensive, ground-level research in collaboration with multiple wings of the Indian Armed Forces, this is a story drawn from reality… not to create noise, but to confront it: with facts, with clarity, and the magic of cinema,” wrote Agnihotri in a post on X.
This is the second film announced on Operation Sindoor. Nicky Vicky Bhagnani Films and The Content Engineer had previously announced a film titled Operation Sindoor while the offensive was still on.
Agnihotri last made The Bengal Files (2025), the third installment after The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2022). The 2025 movie looked at the events that took place on Direct Action Day of 1946, and the riots that followed. The Tashkent Files questioned Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death in Uzbekistan’s capital city, The Kashmir Files was on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.
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The trademark rush
As Operation Sindoor was ongoing, there was a rush to file trademark applications for its title. Reliance Industries also joined the race. But within a day, the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate issued a statement saying that Jio Studios had withdrawn its application.
“Reliance Industries has no intention of trademarking Operation Sindoor, a phrase which is now a part of the national consciousness as an evocative symbol of Indian bravery,” read the statement.
On the other hand, Uttam Jaju, an ad filmmaker from Surat, announced his film through an AI-generated poster on Instagram on 7 May.
The AI-generated poster for Operation Sindoor features a female soldier standing with her back to the viewer, dressed in uniform and holding a rifle, as she applies sindoor (vermillion).
“It will be a commercial film, and it is definitely not going to be propaganda,” Jaju had told ThePrint, adding that they would also try to help soldiers’ families through the film’s proceeds.