Akshay Kumar has just finished shooting a song for Airlift and the film will now go for final editing. The film, which releases on January 22, 2016, is based on the biggest mission India has ever conducted to rescue Indians from Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1990.
Akshay says, “Indian government at that time had hidden this information. There was no story about this, which was such a big mission, except for one article. That’s it. To rescue 1,70,000 Indians, it was not a small matter. There was also a political reason why this information was hidden. It was connected to the US, as they were against all this and we were close to Saddam. Many ministers had met him also. I am so proud that we have got this in front of the world now.”
The film was shot in Ras Al Khaimah, which is four hours away from Dubai. “Those spots look like time stopped there in the 90s. The government gave us permission to use the whole area for the shoot. All the tanks that you see in the trailer, the explosions, they are all real.”
He plays a the role of a businessman who was part of the rescue mission. Akshay makes it clear that he has no intentions of revealing identities and the people involved are still alive. “I cannot reveal much. It involved about two to three people but we have merged them into one character.”
Akshay reveals that he has also met the pilots who entered the war zone to rescue Indians. Would the government have issues with the film? “This is a democracy. If they want to see the film, I would be more than happy to show it. I don’t think there will be any problems,” Akshay says.
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