Kushal Srivastava to make a war film on the life of Wing Commander Dhanoa

Air Force Officer turned Bollywood filmmaker, Kushal Srivastava, best known for his debut directorial film Vodka Diaries starring Kay Kay Menon, Raima Sen and Mandira Bedi and his other films 'The Job' (Featuring Kalki Koechlin) and 'Love Birds' (Featuring Adhayayan Suman) is all set for his next. His upcoming feature film is a war film named "Golden Arrows" based on the life of Wing Commander Dhanoa to pay tribute to Air Warriors. Kushal on sharing about coming up with the idea of making the film says, "Having served in the Indian Air Force, it's been my dream to be able to pay tribute to our Air Warriors through the power of Cinema. In our Indian cinema, we have not made any war film yet which is based on actual real-life air warfare of the Indian Air Force. My film is about the toughest air war ever fought in the entire world and is based on a true war the Indian Air Force fought with exceptional courage. I know that the life of fighter pilots is completely different from the Indian Army. It’s time we introduce to our audiences the world of our Air Warriors and their brotherhood with the Army." Revealing about his preparations and challenges on making this film he shared, "We were given a list of all the War Heroes (fighter pilots) who were a part of this war, some were based in Bangalore, some in Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Delhi etc. We met all of them for our research. Being a filmmaker who is an ex-soldier, it's my duty to strike a perfect balance between drama and authenticity. I want to make sure there is full attention to detail. We have Retd. Group Captain Tarun Kumar Singha on board who is supervising such details. I have had several meetings with Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa and his wife Kamalpreet Dhanoa. They have given us many insightful details about their lives. Dhanoa explained his day-to-day routines at the Srinagar Air Base and the challenges they had to face while fighting. We’ve had detailed discussions with Air Marshal Vinod Patney, who spearheaded the war.” The film is about the brotherhood of Wing Commander Dhanoa and Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja. Wing Commander Dhanoa transforms the role of his MiG-21 from a mere photo-recce to bombing when Squadron Leader Ahuja is shot down amidst the war. He adds, “The film is dedicated to Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja. Alka Ahuja has been very supportive and the information she shared about Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja has been so helpful that it helped us create a vivid picture of him in our minds. We met other fighter pilots of Golden Arrows along with fighter pilots of Mig-27 squadron and Mirage-2000 squadron, one of them being Air Marshal Nambiar. His inputs have enhanced the story. I also went on a recce to an ordnance factory in Jabalpur with Sabu Cyril." Coming from a military background and then stepping into Bollywood he shares about his interesting journey, "I was barely 11 when my uncle Raju Srivastava took me along to N Chandra’s film set in Mumbai. I saw a shot being canned for the first time in my life, and that image stayed on with me for years. And even though I was serving in IAF, in the heart of hearts, I knew my real calling was filmmaking. We used to perform several plays in the Air Force. All the youngsters would play certain characters and I would direct them. We used to win many such competitions and had a lot of fun.” He further adds, "I started as an assistant director. I directed Kaafir, my first short film at MET College, Mumbai, that bagged the Best Short film award from Aamir Khan. The real learning happened under filmmaker JP Dutta; he is my film school teacher who taught me the ethics of filmmaking. I also assisted Anurag Basu in a few Ad films. I've made several ad films, music videos with actors like Anupam Kher, Ronit Roy, Raveena Tandon and many more."