Siddharth recollects his experience of working with real Indian Air Force pilots on ‘Operation Safed Sagar’
Mumbai, Aug 9 (IANS) Actor Siddharth, who essays the role of a fighter pilot in the recently released streaming series ‘Operation Safed Sagar’, has shared his experience of working with “pilots from the Indian Air Force” on the series.
The actor spoke with IANS along with his co-actors Jimmy Shergill, Mihir Ahuja and Arnav Bhasin in the BKC area of Mumbai during the promotions of the series.
Recollecting his experience, he told IANS, “The air force also gave us so much. Just imagine you are actually doing your pre-flight check on an actual Mi-21 before it was retired. So we were the last to get our hands on those machines”.
He further mentioned, “Our crew has actually had pilots from the Indian Air Force fly MiGs in short. Land MiGs, take-off MiGs. Who gets all this? So at that time, if you want to act as a pilot, if you don’t even do that, then, brother, something is very wrong”.
The series is based on the eponymous combined arms operation by the Indian Air Force, supporting elements of the Indian Army during the 1999 Kargil war that was aimed at flushing out regular and irregular troops of the Pakistani Army from vacated Indian Positions in the Kargil sector along the Line of Control. It was the first large-scale use of airpower in the Jammu and Kashmir region since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. It was the first large-scale use of airpower in the Jammu and Kashmir region since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Operation Safed Sagar was launched on May 26, it targeted Pakistani positions entrenched on high-altitude peaks after initial ground advances faced stiff resistance. Flying under strict orders not to cross the Line of Control, the IAF deployed aircraft including the MiG-27, MiG-21, Mirage 2000 and Mi-17 helicopters. Precision strikes by the Mirage 2000 destroyed enemy bunkers, supply routes and logistics hubs, weakening Pakistani defences and enabling Indian Army troops to recapture strategic heights, significantly contributing to India’s victory.
The series is available to stream on Netflix.
–IANS
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