When the first look teaser of Operation Safed Sagar was released in November last year, it didn’t create much buzz despite featuring popular actors in the cast. Interestingly, both Abhijeet Singh Parmar (co-creator and co-showrunner) and Mehboob Pal Singh Brar (co-producer) say that they perceived the lukewarm response positively, despite being somewhat taken aback by it. Mehboob recalls, “There were a lot of comments saying, ‘this is the same story.’ I thought it is good that people think like this. When they finally watch the show, it’s going to hit them differently — I was sure of that.”
Since its premiere on August 7, Operation Safed Sagar has received positive reviews from both critics and the audience — and its unconventional treatment of a familiar theme (Indo-Pak conflicts) perhaps plays a big role in it. Abhijeet shares how OSS was first pitched as a film by Kushal Shrivastava, an ex-Air Force officer who is also credited as a co-creator. However, Abhijeet felt there was a lot to explore that needed an expansive treatment in a series format.
There were a lot of finer details of this universe Abhijeet had little idea about — and that became the driving philosophy for how the concept would eventually be developed. “So many things — how Army life differs from Air Force life, why there are war cries in the Army but not in the Air Force, why the Air Force uses 2D maps and not 3D maps, how a fighter pilot gets made. I didn’t look at OSS as a war show or an Indo-Pak Kargil conflict show. My brief to my writers was let’s create a mixtape of all unseen things, and record part of the history we don’t know about.” This brief is perhaps why OSS is also able to devote equal screentime to the tussle on the Pakistani side of the story. “We get to know what the conflict is, who is sitting on those peaks. I had read so much about Kargil, but I didn't know all this. So, I kept myself on the forefront thinking, ‘Whatever I don't know, I will write about.’”
One of the major learnings, for both Abhijeet and Mehboob, was how the Air Force officers consciously keep their personal and professional lives apart. Mehboob tells us, “When you actually meet these officers in their civilian clothes, you can't even imagine them to be from defence. You meet some incredible people — fun and so simple to talk to — and you realise there is so much stress in the air that they have to keep it light when they’re on the ground.” Abhijeet adds, “To see that switch in their head, as they wear their helms and uniform — it was so interesting to witness.”
OSS also makes a rare accomplishment of not going overboard on the jingoism and heroism despite the obvious potential. Abhijeet takes a moment to acknowledge Siddharth’s conscientiousness. He adds, “Siddharth was one of the first people we approached, and we all agreed that we were not going to depict Ahuja as a hero — he became a hero in retrospect, but at that point, he was just doing his duty. Even during the shoot, Siddharth would frequently ask, “Am I stepping out of that zone? Am I becoming Siddharth? Am I playing this like a hero?’ and he never once stepped out of character.”
Further talking about the understated element of patriotism in the series, Abhijeet notes, “The most difficult scene to write was in episode 4 when Ajay Ahuja is interrogated. That’s where he's very ‘dialogue-y’, and he could say those lines in a very loud way. Yet, Ahuja is saying it so internally. Sometimes, when you're writing, you discover your sense of patriotism. If it is earned, you feel patriotic. If it doesn't come from a sense of truth, it feels jingoistic — like you're exploiting that sentiment. We felt that just showing them doing their duties, the perseverance they have, how they bond with each other is patriotic enough — it doesn't need additional masala. We just followed that principle. They are doing what they are supposed to do under such circumstances — that patriotism doesn’t need to be peppered or underlined anymore.”
The challenges didn’t end with the authentic depiction of the inner lives of Air Force officers; they also extended to recreating the battleground — the white snow river that gave the operation its name. Throwing light on the execution process, Abhijeet reflects, “I was horrified after writing 200 pages of beats of the show. I knew I would handle the politics of the show, the slice of life element — but it was equally important to convincingly sell the aerial sequences. That was something we really wanted to push the curve on. I was scared, ‘What if they say yes? How will we pull this off?’ Netflix gave us that backing where we could break down those 200 pages into smaller challenges, and everything became a mini show of its own — be it shooting in mountains, or cracking the cockpit visuals and the VFX elements.” Recalling the live location shoot, Abhijeet adds, “We initially thought of shooting with fake snow, but both Mehboob and our DOP Sethu raised so many concerns that convinced us we had to shoot the real stuff. Exactly a year before the shoot was supposed to begin, we went for the recce, finalising the peaks where we wanted to shoot. Mehboob was transporting rocks. There were so many more logistical arrangements and acclimatization. But when you see even one of those visuals, it feels worth it.”
Mehboob recalls, “It didn't feel right to shoot the snow parts of a show in a studio. It wouldn't have landed. When you see the close up of a mujahideen putting his foot on a snow peak, that footstep speaks to you. It was crucial to feel that impact of clothes flailing in that windy atmosphere. Our local line producer, with over 35 years of experience, said nobody had even shot a song here. But everyone stood for it because they all loved the story.” Abhijeet also talks about the importance of a platform’s backing for a project like this. He adds, “Netflix was always excited, sometimes more than us, saying, ‘everything is fine, keep doing it.’ They really put their cross-functional teams on it. This is one such show where boundaries got blurred — it was hard to tell where the production house was and where Netflix was. Everyone was just trying to bring it alive.”
However, what is most inspiring is the 4.5 year long wait before the two could put the show together. “We didn’t pick up anything else. Mehboob took up a show as a supervising producer, to financially support us and keep our kitchens running so that I could keep writing and researching. “We were really taking our time to make this, and it took an incredible amount of effort to protect the soul of the show and its storytelling,” Abhijeet concludes.