Movie on escape of IAF pilots from Pakistan to hit screens on IAF Day

The saga of three Indian Air Force Pilots, who escaped from a Pakistani Prison, and the fourth pilot who facilitated their great escape will hit the screens in India around the Indian Air Force Day on 8 October. “The Great Indian Escape” a Hindi movie about the unsung heroes of IAF during 1971 Indo-Pak war is not just made with the help of crowd funding but also will be crowd distributed.

The film unit which was visiting Air force stations all over the country to show case their production arrived at the Air Force Academy here in Dundigal on Sunday.

Interacting with the media at the Academy the editor and director of the movie Taranjiet Singh Namdhari said “I first came across the story idea when I saw a poster on the four unsung heroes at the Bangalore Airport.

I goggled about it but there is nothing much available in the web. Then I have decided to make a movie about the pilots whom the modern historians forgot to write,” Taranjeit said.

The movie which is made at just 0.1 % cost of magnum opus Bahubali is about Flt Lt Dilip Parulkar played by debutant Raghav Rishi, son of actor Mukesh Rishi, Flt Lt Garry Grewal played by Raja Singh Arora, Flt Lt Harry Sinhji played by Asheesh Kapur who escape a high security prison in Rawalpindi of Pakistan and reached borders of Rajasthan.

The movie is also about the brave officer Fg Officer Vidhyadhar Chati played by Nimesh Balaji Shinde who not only helped the trio to dig the tunnel from barracks to outside, but stayed back knowing very well that he could be prosecuted.

“We used to pack the sand emanating from the tunnel and stash them carefully in packets. It was the independence day of Pakistan and when everyone is busy in celebrations the trio escaped. I made their beds, starting talking to the beds as they were there, till some top officer Pakistan Air Force declared that three Indian pilots escaped,” Vidhyadar Chati who was released after the end of the war and retired from IAF as Wing Commander said.