Over the last few years, Hindi cinema has been busy producing chest-thumping patriotic films. The recent Netflix series Operation Safed Sagar stands out in the genre. It smartly escapes jingoism, yet packs an emotional punch.
The six-episode series is set during the Kargil War, and is by far the most accurate and dignified portrayal of the Indian Air Force since the 1982 film Vijeta.
The show doesn’t reach for over-the-top heroic shots of flying officers stepping out of the cockpit or unnecessary shots of flying aircraft, something we saw in Siddharth Anand’s Fighter (2024). Instead, it gives a glimpse into the actual, unglamorous side of an air force officer’s daily life.
There is a scene in the last episode where the press questions Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh ‘Tony’ Dhanoa (Jimmy Shergill) about Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja’s (Siddharth) decision of not returning to the base and instead searching for a fellow pilot whose aircraft was shot down. Here, Flying Officer Rajpal Singh Dhaliwal (Abhay Verma) steps in, narrating just how challenging a fighter pilot’s role is.
“I will explain to you what a MiG-21 means to a fighter pilot. First, I will tie you to a seat from where you cannot even move. Then I will place some 100 buttons and 4,000-litre fuel. A small spark can make your jet into a bomb. And you have to fly this live bomb faster than the speed of sound. One mistake and you will turn into ashes. This is the reality of a MiG fighter pilot,” Dhaliwal tells the media.
It’s a small moment, but the scene separates Operation Safed Sagar from the genre’s usual instincts. It doesn’t focus on style or swagger. It depicts the physical reality that shapes the air force.
While lesser films in the patriotic genre reduce the enemy to a cartoonishly evil band of military officers, Operation Safed Sagar extends its cast list to actual military figures on the Pakistani side. Lieutenant General Aziz Khan (Mohan Kapur), Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed (Chetanya Adib), and Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt (Narendra Sachar) are treated as figures within a chain of command rather than flat villains. The choice represents the difference between a war story and a propaganda reel.
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Stories brought back from the base
Another key aspect of the show is that it doesn’t just fixate on aircraft. Flying Officer CH Bal Reddy, played by Mihir Ahuja, goes by the flying name ‘Baldy’ but is nicknamed ‘Professor’ because of his exceptional math calculations. It is his math skill that comes in handy during a high-stakes climax mission to safely navigate and hit a crucial target amid zero visibility.
This groundedness runs through the series created by Kushal Srivastava and Abhijeet Singh Parmar and directed by Oni Sen. Srivastava served in the Indian Air Force from 1999 to 2006.
The show’s small and least cinematic details trace directly back to stories Srivastava brought to Parmar over cups of tea while they were developing the project. One of those details became ‘Bounce’, a real ritual the show depicts. According to it, junior officers of the IAF are allowed to show up at a senior officer’s home, unannounced, at any hour, and demand a meal.
The series also delves into the personal life of some officers, highlighting the role of a fighter pilot’s wife through the characters of Alka Ahuja (Amrita Baghchi) and Kamalpreet Kaur Dhanao (Dia Mirza). They deliberately save arguments for the weekend, so their husbands can fly during the week without carrying distraction into the cockpit.
The show’s commitment to accuracy isn’t just in the writing. It was filmed across operational Indian Air Force bases with access to real aircraft and infrastructure. The production leaned on extensive first-hand consultation with IAF veterans rather than the usual war-movie shorthand.
Shergill has spoken publicly about surrendering his phone entirely for the duration of the shoot, treating the immersion like an actual deployment.
None of this happened by accident or on the cheap. Produced by Sanjay Routray and Sarita Patil of Matchbox Shots LLP, alongside Mehboob Pal Singh Brar of Feel Good Films, the series reportedly carried a budget of roughly Rs 215 crore. But the scale isn’t used just to showcase explosions. It went toward ensuring physical authenticity of its aerial sequences, staged with IAF cooperation.
Ultimately, what makes Operation Safed Sagar land is its refusal to mix patriotism with spectacle and jingoism.
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(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)