Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; July 1, 2019)

Towards the last leg of the year, Emraan Hashmi will slip his feet into Retd Air Commodore Kariyadil Cheriyan Kuruvilla’s (K C Kuruvilla) shoes for director Vijay Ratnakar Gutte’s next film, Vayusena.

The film is expected to go on floors in November and will be wrapped up in a start-to-finish schedule. The makers have already written to the government, seeking permission to shoot at a real airbase along with fighter planes.

Vijay confirmed the news to BT and said, “Emraan hasn’t played a character like this before, and he loves such roles. It was an instant nod from him. It’s a human interest story that starts with the 1971 Indo-Pak war and ends with the Indo-Pak Kargil War of 1999. We plan to film at a real airbase, and it’d be great if the authorities allow us to use real fighter planes to present the story correctly and realistically. We are hopeful that the permission will come through soon.”

The story begins when K C Kuruvilla was a Flying Officer at the age of 26. It’s said that during the operations against Pakistan in December, 1971, he served with a Fighter Bomber Squadron in the Western Sector. On December 4, he carried out a strike mission over Chander airfield and successfully attacked enemy aircraft on ground and airfield installations.

On December 5, Kuruvilla flew another strike mission over Chishtian Mandi, scored a direct hit on the engine of a train and inflicted heavy damage to it, despite intensive anti aircraft fire. On December 6, 1971, he undertook a strike mission over the Dera Baba Nanak area and attacked enemy tank concentrations. During this attack, while making a second pass over the target, his aircraft was hit by the enemy’s anti-aircraft fire and it crashed. However, he survived to tell the tale. The film encapsulates Kuruvilla’s journey from this point all the way up to the Kargil War, when he was still in service.