Kushal Srivastava and J P Dutta

Joining the Indian Air Force (IAF) months after the 1999 Kargil War, Kushal Srivastava got deeply interested in its story. He left the services after six years, but the story of young IAF officers executing the world’s highest aerial operation didn’t leave him.

Today, it has resulted in Netflix’s Operation Safed Sagar. “I met all the war heroes who were involved in it. I did a lot of research and wrote a story,” he told mid-day.

As Srivastava and his co-creator Abhijeet Singh Parmar shaped Operation Safed Sagar, they knew one thing for certain: the Siddharth and Jimmy Shergill-starrer would steer clear of the jingoistic depiction of war that’s become a norm in Bollywood.

“We start glorifying the heroes. But the soul of the IAF is that the men are more important than the machine. In commercial flights, if there is a snag, they will [ask the pilot to] try till the last moment. But in the Air Force, we’re told that the moment the pilot feels something is wrong, they can eject,” said Srivastava.

This learning came as much from the IAF as from filmmaker J P Dutta, whom Srivastava assisted in the initial years of his filmmaking career.

He said, “J P Dutta sir told me that we tell war stories so that people can realize their mistakes, understand the ones who sacrificed their lives and the cost of a war won. He used to say, ‘Don’t cheer for war. While you are happy that you’ve won, you should remember the losses behind it.’”

Citing the example of Border (1997), in which the song Mere Dushman Mere Bhai plays as India wins the war, Srivastava said, “J P sir told me, ‘When it was the moment of celebration in my film, I put this song like a thappad.’”