New Delhi:
For Mihir Ahuja, being a part of Operation Safed Sagar was more than just another acting role. In the series he played Officer Baldy, one of the four young Air Force officers at the centre of the story.
During an interview with Screen, Mihir opened up about his experience of shooting the series and shared why this role was special to him. “I was one year old when the Kargil War happened. Salute to the pilots and everyone who showed courage. I can’t even imagine what people in the armed forces go through when they go to war. We could experience not only like even one-fourth of it,” he said.
As the show was made in collaboration with the Indian Air Force, Mihir, along with his fellow cast members, got to witness the stories from the war firsthand from soldiers who were on the battlefield and also lived in their quarters at air force stations. “Imagine being on the battlefield, flying jets, and bombing—it shakes me just thinking of that. Salute to the pilots and everyone who showed courage and fought for their country,” he shared, adding, “The greatest learning I had from them is how they really live one day at a time. The courage they have is really unmatched.”
Mihir also revealed that during shooting, he was “blessed and grateful” to sit in the cockpit of the actual MiG-21 jets that were used in the Kargil War. “They just got decommissioned after filming. So we are probably the last and only civilians to sit in those jets,” he added.
Talking about the challenges he faced during shooting, Mihir revealed that although none of the actors actually flew any of the jets, shooting in the 4-foot-wide cockpit was challenging. “We had some rehearsals to understand the gravitational pull. When you’re flying, the gravitational force is really high. It’s difficult to breathe. We were just sitting in the cockpit, but a breathing technique helped us achieve the pressure on your face and in your gut. Just shooting in the cockpit only made us so claustrophobic at times. I don’t know how pilots manage. It’s not an easy job at all. You really, really need guts to be where they are,” he shared.
Operation Safed Sagar: The Untold Story of the Kargil War is based on Operation Safed Sagar, the code name for the Indian Air Force’s operations during the Kargil War, and is focused on the exploits of the No. 17 Squadron of the IAF.
In this series Mihir plays the role of Flying Officer CH Bal Reddy, aka Baldy, a 20-something pilot who struggles with balancing his dream to become an Indian Air Force officer with his personal life.
Alongside Mihir, the series also stars Jimmy Shergill, Siddharth, Vinay Pathak, Manu Rishi Chadha, Abhay Verma, Prajakta Koli, and Dia Mirza, among others. The series is available to stream on Netflix.
