A conversation with Kushal Srivastava, co-creator of Netflix’s Operation Safed Sagar.
For Kushal Srivastava, co-creator of Netflix’s Operation Safed Sagar, the story of the Kargil War began long before the series took shape. It began with a dream, a uniform and the sound of fighter jets cutting through the sky. There are films that are conceived in writers’ rooms, and then there are stories that seem to wait patiently for the right filmmaker to come along. For Kushal Srivastava, Operation Safed Sagar belongs firmly to the latter category. An alumnus of the Indian Air Force, Srivastava had carried the idea of making an ode to the IAF for years. Just after his feature film Vodka Diaries released in 2018, he wrote Golden Arrows with his collaborator Antara Srivastava, intending to tell the story of Operation Safed Sagar through the Golden Arrows Squadron while also tracing the progress of the war from the Pakistani military’s side. The research was exhaustive. The team reached out to Group Captain Singha, who helped secure permissions and became a core member of the project. They travelled to multiple cities, meeting IAF officers and their families, trying to understand not merely the events of Kargil but the people who lived through them. Then came Covid. The producer eventually backed out and the film appeared destined to remain unrealised. But Srivastava refused to let go. “We honestly didn’t know if this story would ever see the light of day. But we never let go of it,” he recalls. “We had a deep belief in the story and felt strongly that the extraordinary bravery of the IAF during Kargil deserved to reach the public.” The turning point came after the pandemic when an old friend, Mehboob Pal Singh Baar, introduced him to his business partner Abhijeet Singh Parmar. What began as a conversation about the subject soon transformed the project. Parmar suggested developing it as a web series. “I realised that a series would give us a much wider canvas to explore the details and multiple story tracks,” says Srivastava. Netflix and Matchbox subsequently came onboard, turning a project that had survived years of uncertainty into what Srivastava describes as “quite magical” — a journey stretching from 2018 to 2026.
For Srivastava, however, Operation Safed Sagar is far more personal than a war story. It is, in many ways, a return to his own past. “When I was in the Air Force, I used to get goosebumps while watching jets flying and that is still the case with me till date,” he says. “The afterburners sound literally beats in one’s chest.” That visceral connection became an invaluable cinematic resource. From writing and art to costumes, VFX and actor training, Srivastava found himself revisiting the minute details of a world he had once inhabited. “It was like recreating an important part of my own life for the screen,” he says.
Perhaps that explains why authenticity became the series’ guiding principle. The production did not merely recreate the IAF; it attempted to inhabit it. Srivastava contributed his own Air Force overall and uniform, envelopes and letters, course books and even period-specific details such as his Timex watch — now celebrated online as “peak detailing.” The locations were equally important. The team filmed in real spaces, including squadron environments, while the Army’s battle sequences were mounted at 16,000 feet. “We did not follow any formula,” Srivastava says. “Our aim was never to make a hit show. We honestly tried to show the real world of IAF and the world appreciates that honesty.”
That honesty extends to the characters themselves. Rather than turning them into larger-than-life embodiments of patriotism, the series presents them as ordinary human beings confronted with extraordinary circumstances. “I think it was a breath of fresh air and relatable for people to see these officers as normal humans doing extraordinary things, which is the reality too,” he says.
And then there are the MiGs. The aerial combat sequences are among the series’ most spectacular achievements, but the spectacle was built upon meticulous preparation. Netflix provided a VFX team from the project’s inception, allowing the filmmakers to discuss flying sequences even during the writing stage. The VFX team accompanied them on research recce, spoke to real pilots and observed fighter jets firsthand. The IAF itself provided invaluable support, including real flying footage and detailed briefings. Technology completed the illusion. A motion base, being used in India for the first time, was procured. The art department recreated the MiG-21 cockpit and mounted it on the motion base, with aircraft movements and manoeuvres programmed into the system. The DOP and VFX team painstakingly recreated changing light, the movement of the sun and clouds. “When the actor sat inside the cockpit, the entire setup would respond to the required turns and manoeuvres,” Srivastava explains. The result was not simply visual realism but authentic physical reactions from the actors. Every flying sequence was discussed with IAF pilots. Group Captain Alok Choudhry, known as Chou in the series, was particularly instrumental in ensuring that cinematic drama never overwhelmed aviation reality.
But perhaps the most revealing story concerns casting. Srivastava had to persuade several actors wary of the familiar territory of patriotic cinema. Adil Hussain, in particular, required persistent persuasion. “I had to chase Adil sir a lot. He was not ready to listen to the story,” he recalls. Eventually, Srivastava sent him a simple message: “Sir, please trust me, I am an Ex Air Force and want to show the real world in a non jingoistic way.” That changed everything. “He replied, ‘Let’s meet.’”
It is a fitting moment for a series that has consciously chosen authenticity over bombast. Operation Safed Sagar does not seek thrills by manufacturing them. Its greatest thrill lies in the reality itself — in the roar of an afterburner, the vulnerability of a pilot, the pressure of a cockpit at altitude, and the knowledge that behind every manoeuvre was a human being confronting history.
For Kushal Srivastava, the journey from Golden Arrows to Operation Safed Sagar has therefore been more than a long-gestating cinematic project. It has been a deeply personal act of remembrance — and perhaps the most fitting cinematic tribute he could offer to the Air Force that once gave him goosebumps every time its jets took to the sky.
Murtaza Ali Khan is an award-winning cultural critic, journalist, and academic. A jury member for the 69th & 70th National Film Awards, he has covered entertainment for The Hindu, The Sunday Guardian, and The Quint since 2008, with over 2,000 TV appearances as a media expert. He is also a film festival curator, translator of Hindujas and Bollywood, and a NETqualified journalism educator.
