When the Golden Arrows Squadron of the Indian Air Force pulled off what became the world’s highest-altitude air operation, they changed the course of the Kargil War. Air Marshal Vinod Patney (retd), who served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Air Command during the 1999 war, was awarded the Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal (SYSM) for his leadership. In the series Operation Safed Sagar, Adil Hussain plays the officer – delivering a performance marked by a commanding ease.

In a conversation with us, Adil spoke about the series, what it took to step into the role, and how he found the human being behind a senior officer’s uniform.

Before Adil agreed to play Air Marshal Patney, he had a few questions. “‘Is it a hyper-jingoistic thing? There would be a bit of jingoism or violence because it’s a war story. But are we glorifying it? Or are we showing it so that people do not get inspired to become violent?’ These were the questions I had,” he says. “I said I would read the entire script and decide whether to be part of it or not,” he tells us, adding, “And after reading two or three episodes, I realized it was very different. So I was very sure about Operation Safed Sagar from the beginning.”

Adil credits much of the show’s realistic portrayal to the Air Force consultants. “Of course it makes a huge difference,” he explains, “The nuances, the details of their lives, the technicalities, the way they behave, look, think about their relationship between them and their aircraft, the way someone cleans the aircraft – all these things, when you see them by yourself, make a huge difference. When you have access to the actual people, actual aircraft, actual machinery, the person who comes and cleans the hangar, the person who works in the canteen, how the senior airmen behave, how they have fun and how they carry themselves in every aspect of their airfield – it’s a huge advantage.”

Besides, it traces back to one person: co-creator Kushal Srivastava, who served in the Air Force himself before becoming a creator. “I would say almost 50%, or maybe 60%, of the success of this particular series is because Kushal Srivastava is from the Air Force,” he emphasizes.

Air Marshal Patney’s Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal makes him a decorated figure within the Air Force, but he is not a face familiar to the public. An actor playing him cannot draw on decades of footage and public memory. “I had the advantage of playing the role, not the character. There is a difference. Characters are defined by the characteristics of the person. The role is defined by what role this person has played in the entire thing,” shares Adil.

He elaborates, “He has this no-nonsense attitude, an absolutely dedicated person. I did not imitate him. I didn’t have to look like him, I didn’t have to walk like him. But the inner attitude – his sincerity, dedication and absolute masterful understanding of strategic warfare – these are universal qualities of any great leader. I embodied that.”

He reaches for a comparison outside military drama: Invictus (2009), in which Morgan Freeman played Nelson Mandela. For Adil, Freeman’s performance offered a useful lesson in approaching a real-life figure without becoming an imitation of them.

“Morgan Freeman never wanted to look like Nelson Mandela. He played the role, and I think it’s one of the best depictions of Nelson Mandela, in spite of him not looking like or behaving like him or sounding like him. So I took a similar artistic decision. I’m not going to imitate him. I will play the role – a person who embodies all these great qualities of a leader, which is called the archetype,” Adil tells us.

Filming at Air Force stations came with its own discipline. He recalls, “I shoot in Mumbai all the time, and suddenly I get to know that there’s an Air Force Station in Madh Island. And then you’re there and everything is confiscated at the gate. There are strictly enforced rules that no photography is allowed. In hindsight, we were really happy to be in each other’s company. We could dedicate our time to preparing for the scenes that were coming up.”

The warmth, he says, went both ways. “The kind of warmth that all the Air Force personnel had, whether at Madh Island or Chandigarh Air Force Station, was wonderful. They had all seen my films, so they were very sweet. They came to take photos and sometimes gave me access to sit in the pilot seat and look at the console. That was amazing.”

The officers, watching a shoot unfold for the first time, came away with new respect. “They were also realizing how hard it is to make a series. They were telling us, ‘Oh my God, we didn’t know it was so hard. You stand in the sun for hours and take one shot’. I was like – yes, it is,” he laughs.

If there’s a word viewers and Adil return to more than any other in explaining why the portrayal landed, it’s dignity. Adil explains, “The difference between the enemy and you is that you are dignified, you are graceful. You do not behave the way your enemy would. That is the difference: you do not fall from your grace, and yet you protect your country with utmost dedication. That is one of the strengths of this series.”

He extends the thought well past the show itself. “Dignity and grace have been lost, or are slowly disappearing from human society in every part of the world. So it is important to bring about, or inspire, or fill in the aspiration of people to walk towards a higher quality of human beings – dignity, grace, compassion, dedication, honesty, serving with absolute sincerity, whatever you do, whether you are an actor, a farmer, an airman, a military person, a doctor or a teacher.”

Actor Manu Rishi Chadha, who plays former Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf in Operation Safed Sagar, says the role has brought him both hate and appreciation.

“My social media DMs are flooded. Someone wrote that he wants to slap me for the act and hug me for my work. I was like… please don’t slap, as if others too feel the same, it will be too much (laughs). I feel the hate is also love which means the work was appreciated,” he tells us. Chadha says he expected strong reactions to his portrayal of Musharraf during the 1999 Kargil War. “There is one common message I am getting: Manu bhai jitni nafrat thi (Musharraf) woh double ho gaya par aapse pyar ho gaya! I want ki woh nafrat bani rahe.”

For the role, he deliberately stayed away from too many archival references: “I just saw 1-2 videos, but then I decided not to; otherwise it would become caricaturish. My first question was, ‘How do I look like him?’ Also, hero ki duniya mein villain banna, and that too a real person, was a challenge.”

A chat with Nawazuddin Siddiqui helped him find his approach. “I asked him how he played (Saadat Hasan) Manto in the film and he was like, there was no reference of him except his photo and work. So, he created and worked on his human side — right or wrong! So, I decided that I will just follow my director and creators’ vision.”

Chadha says the challenge was to inhabit the character without slipping into mimicry. “Kahin mimic na ho jaye — yeh darr bhi rakha aur jimmedari bhi rakhi! As an Indian, I can hate him but as an actor, I can’t!” he ends.

Operation Safed Sagar is Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s second web series of the year after Daldal. Interestingly, the actor-director has yet to helm an OTT series. There’s a good reason for that. “I have thought of directing for the web, but I will not direct a series when a platform tells me how to direct it,” he told mid-day.

The strong stance comes from years of observation as he acted in four to five series. Almost each set showed him that the director unfortunately had little creative control of their material. “They are all good directors. It’s a three-year project for them. In the first year, they write and rewrite. Second year, they shoot and reshoot. Third year, they edit and re-edit. When the show comes out, they’re gasping for breath,” he shared.

Citing an example of a series he shot a few years ago, Mahadevan recalled, “We did a great scene. Somebody sent the scene to the [streamer], then a person from the streamer came to reshoot that scene. I don’t understand. These are not filmmakers; they have to prove and earn their salaries. Why do they do this to directors, who have a reputation and track record?”

Admittedly, the filmmaker has a few subjects for long format shows, but he is “petrified” of approaching platforms. He said, “Their development [of material] goes into redevelopment faster than the buildings in Mumbai. I’d rather be acting in web series than directing them.”

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.’”

Intent is the soul of every story told. And it’s that very intent that drew Siddharth to Operation Safed Sagar, also starring Jimmy Shergill and Abhay Verma. The Netflix series might be about the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) mission during the 1999 Kargil War, but to the actor, it’s more about the inner lives of the young officers who fought the battle.

Recalling his reaction when he read the script of the Abhijeet Singh Parmar and Kushal Srivastava creation, Siddharth told mid-day, “A lot of research had been done with a good heart and intent. By the time it came to me, it was very clear that it’s not a show about war. It’s not a show about action, or dogfights, or bravado in disguise. Those are elements of the story. But for me, it’s a human interest story. The individuals, their families, what the war did to them and what they did to change the course of the war is what Operation Safed Sagar is about.”

According to the actor, now is the right time to tell the story about the world’s highest aerial operation fought by the IAF. Why? Because of what long-format storytelling affords, he reasoned.

“We have not gone screaming about a crazy action [mission]. We’ve gone into understanding that there were young boys who went into battle for specific reasons. The altitude it happened at, the political climate at the time, the diplomatic situation on both sides of the border — [these factors] make it a layered story. Today we have the luxury of making something so detailed, thanks to long-format storytelling.”

For Siddharth, sitting in an MiG was an experience he had never dreamt of. “While we’ve not done sorties in the sky, we did taxiing procedures. [At such times,] you suffer from imposter syndrome because you’ve not done anything to deserve this honour. But the [IAF] trusted us; they gave us enough time and resources to do the research,” he shared.

The spirit of ‘Rang De Basanti’ (2006) could be felt in the student protests that ran across the country till July 25. Siddharth, who was part of the iconic movie, hopes that ‘Operation Safed Sagar’ too has a similar impact. “My hope is that in 20 years, you’ll be celebrating [this show] the way you celebrate ‘Rang De Basanti’.  It will inspire young people to do good things,” he said.