Jay Verma is recreating general-turned-politician VK Singh’s Yemen rescue operation
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 28, 2019)

Ad filmmaker Jay Verma will make his feature film debut by recreating on screen Operation Raahat, the diplomatic mission to evacuate Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Yemen during the 2015 crisis. It was spearheaded by Vijay Kumar Singh, retired army chief, who in his capacity of Minister of State for External Affairs, led from the front and without a single bullet being fired, rescued 4,800 Indians and 2000 foreign nationals from the clutches of Al-Qaeda terrorist Nasir Al-Wuhayshi. The director who has been researching the subject for over a year, plans to roll with the film in a few months.

“This is the biggest operation India has conducted after the 1971 Indo-Pak war. When Yemen was in the grips of a civil war, Saudi Arabia attacked and bombed it. Terrorists also ran amok, with the country divided between the Al-Qaeda and the ISIS, and the sea controlled by Somalian pirates. To get Indian civilians out of there was a difficult task, with UK and the US throwing in the towel. VK Singh walked into the war zone without a gun or security and convinced them to let the innocents out,” informs Jay, adding that he is in talks with an A-lister to play the general-turned-politician.

He adds that the cast will be a mix of Indian and international artistes. “There are many interesting women characters in the story. We will be casting an international actress to play a British journalist battling for her life. It is being planned as the biggest war film to that has ever come out of India.”

Singh is ecstatic that a film is being made on his mission. “It will be a statement of a new rising India, where every Indian across the globe has confidence that their country’s government will support, help and rescue them if the situation calls for it,” he asserts. 

MUMBAI MIRROR (July 18, 2016)