Popular Indian movie star Akshay Kumar is going to star in an upcoming film based on the 1990 Iraq invasion of Kuwait called “Airlift”. The movie is based on a true story and one I hadn’t heard of before. Here is the film synopsis:
Ranjit Katyal (played by Akshay Kumar), a wealthy and powerful Indian businessman, who has always seen himself as a Kuwaiti, rather than an Indian, realises that he no longer wields any influence on the Iraqis, and that he and his family are in as much danger as anyone else. Ranjit unknowingly becomes the man who all 170,000 Indians look up to for getting them out safely from Kuwait. Airlift is the story of Indians stranded in Kuwait during this traumatic time. A story of how they, with the help of Ranjit Katyal, managed to survive the Iraqi invasion, and against all odds travelled a thousand kilometres across the border into Amman, Jordan. From Amman, 170,000 Indians were brought home by the largest and the most successful evacuation ever attempted by any country, in the history of the world. Over 59 days, the Indian government systematically flew over 488 Air India commercial flights into a war zone to evacuate all 170,000 Indians and safely bring them back home. Airlift is an uplifting and entertaining edge-of-the-seat thriller and is the story of the biggest ever human evacuation in the history of mankind.
Airlift, directed by Raja Krishna Menon, starts filming April 2015 and is presented by T-Series and Cape of Good Films; produced by Crouching Tiger and Emmay Entertainment. Bhushan Kumar, talking about the film, said, “It’s my conviction that the story will be equally appreciated once on celluloid as much as I loved it during narration. The character that Akshay plays is filled with heroism and I am sure he will add to the perfection with this central character role that he essays.”
It’s definitely going on my must watch list. The movie comes out January 2016. [Source 1] [Source 2]
45 replies on “New Film on the 1990 Iraqi Invasion”
Akshay is going to do WHAT????
I met the bitch last month, I mentioned that I live in Kuwait, he could have brought up that he’s starring in a film about the Iraqi invasion.
I should have reported this first. Bollywood is my thing. *Smacks self in the back of the head*
Congratulations Mark on your first Bollywood film outing.
I remembered you the first thing when I read this post… I thought you would find it interesting…
Akshay is man btw and is not a biaaatch
Hahahaha. Just for the record, it’s you who added the “-iaaaaatch”.
He can be one. I still like him. I just prefer his step-mom’s choice of films.
I guess you meant his mother-in-law’s choice of films 🙂
YES! Sorry!
I am most definitely gonna watch this.
Some of my relatives lived in Kuwait through the war or at least parts of it. My grandparents were on leave in India when the war broke.
I too read about this about 3-4 months back, there was no teaser then though. Didn’t even cross my mind that I could inform you/248am about it. Dumb yeah I know 🙂
Anyway, most of this movie is being shot in the UAE.
Thats right.
And they will mess up with all the localities, and details.
check this image:
https://cdn.koimoi.com/wp-content/new-galleries/2015/03/nikhil-advanis-airlift-impressed-akshay-kumar-immediately-1.jpg
Shops have mob # and RAK???
The movie is set to start filming next month and there will be post production work. This is obviously a PR shot and for the final movie they’re gonna edit out mobile numbers, email addresses etc.. from the final edit.
I hope this film exposes you the more cerebral side of Bollywood, Mark. It’s a darn shame that media constantly perpetuates this one-dimensional image of the Hindi film industry.
i just hope its not a musical lol
Judging by the female lead and the director, I can safely say that it won’t be.
With singing, dancing (in the rain)???
LOL
But No shooting going to be in kuwait.Lol
That’s because Kuwait doesn’t have the infrastructure or experience to handle major film productions. UAE, Lebanon and Egypt are three countries in the region that can and UAE looks the closest like Kuwait.
Well yeah but also because Dubai is Bollywood’s second home.
And also because our government would rather we forget about the invasion/occupation
+1 that is the sad truth
doesn’t that kind of make the construction of “shaheed park” a moot point?
everywhere you go, we are reminded of the POW’s, how can we never forget our POW’s if we don’t recall what they were imprisoned for?
also theyd rather forget that there are indians here. road trip to Jleeb anyone!?
I honestly wish they somehow shoot at least a couple of shots of the dude in front of the real Kuwait Towers or the Liberation Tower (and digitally alter it to show it half-built)… anyway, would be really cool if a portion of a bollywood movie is shot in Kuwait.
So true. And it’s high time they shot a film here 🙂
After all, everyone’s favorite Kuwaiti company, KITCO, is Indian.
WHAAAAAAT!?
Yeah afaik the full form of KITCO is Kuwait Indo Trading Company
the shooting is underway currently in Ras Al Khaimah where a set of a mini Kuwait of the 90’s is erected and the whole area is supposedly cordoned off.
Good to see some MF’s ranting already!!! And then you call it hopes?!! … why not produce it yourself?!!! Been 26 yrs now.
huh?
I know … it’s coming.
Dude, post the Entourage trailer on here. It was released this morning.
I know, I know, totally irrelevant.
it came out in december and already posted it https://248am.com/pm/movies-television/entourage-the-movie-trailer/
No man, the full trailer came out today! That was just a teaser.
It could be banned here just because it is related to invasion… Though totally unrelated reason could also work for the ban…
Why would it be banned? Is it because the US pretty much saved their a$$?
A little off topic but it seems the KP nemesis has already copied and posted this story on their FB page. I really can’t stand those people, all they do is rip off other people’s work and don’t give credit.
Mark, buy me a cup of coffee and I’ll tell you the whole story. I was 11 years old when it happened so I remember much of it. We almost got robbed by highwaymen (who we suspect were in cahoots with the Iraqi bus driver we hired)
Long story short, we spent 3 days in ‘no man’s land’ in a Red Cross refugee camp and then were airlifted by Air India flight from Amman, Jordan. Turns out it was the biggest civilian air evacuation in history.
https://scroll.in/article/668866/the-berlin-airlift-was-remarkable,-but-the-largest-civilian-evacuation-in-history-is-by-india
i’ll buy you coffee just to hear this story.
I’ll be able to check this for accuracy 🙂
I was 12. We got on a yellow KPTC bus, drove for three days through Iraq and Jordan and then spent a week at a UN camp in the Jordanian desert before being flown on an air india plane to Mumbai.
@Les: you spent a whole week at the camps? Must have been at the end of August or early September right? I remember many of the early refugees faced a lot of logistical issues.
We left by late September and by then there was a regular convoy of buses from Kuwait, via Basra and they’d drop people off at the camps in Jordan.
Another reason to watch said movie – Nimrat Kaur !
She is diva-fabulous.
Hindi film- Baby is worth a watch, Mark.
Mark this is a bollywood movie
Musical part will indeed be there atleast 10 -25 mins of songs will be there
I was 6 months when this happened.. And know of the story only through my parents. I cannot remember shit, though.
The movie I was eagerly waiting, I thought I will be watching first day first show here in Kuwait, was checking everyday to try and advance book, it was there on Cinescape’s site under COMING SOON section until Tuesday 19/01/2016 and today I cant find it so in all likely hood it has been banned here in Kuwait. 🙁 upset feel like flying to Dubai just to watch this movie.