While several films like Fighter and Operation Valentine have been created on Balakot air strike, Ranneeti: Balakot and Beyond by director Santosh Singh showcases events which unfolded between the Pulwama terrorist attack and the retaliatory Balakot Air strikes. Inspired from true events, the web series comprises of a stellar star cast including Jimmy Shergill, Lara Dutta, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi and others. Ranneeti: Balakot and Beyond is a 9-episode series which recently released on JioCinema. Each episode is of duration 30 to 35 minutes.
In a candid conversation director Santosh Singh who has worked with several directors such as Karan Johar and Ayan Mukerji, explained the nuanced details of the effort and research work involved in the making of the film and his experience working with such seasoned actors.
Director Santosh Singh said, “We all know that Pulwama terrorist attack took place and India retaliated with Balakot Air strikes. Our series is about the events that took place between Pulwama attack and Balakot strikes. It unveils the way in which our intelligence agencies and armed forces planned the entire mission. We conducted a research for 2 years as the entire data was classified. We met with many defence experts and defence consultants and gathered information from them and combined facts with fiction in a very structured way.”
He further said that writers Rameez Illham Khan, Maitry Bajpayee, Anurudh Guha, Sanjay Chopra and Sudeep Nigam worked for two years on the story to bring out facts.
He further said, “Jimmy Shergill leads the team from India while actor Ashutosh Rana leads the team from Pakistan. Ashish Vidyarthi and Lara Dutta have also played important roles. While other movies are based on action and they do not delve much deep we are showing the back room drama and planning behind the scene between Pulwama attacks and Balakot air strike. We shot for 25 days at Serbian Air Force base. The climax is shot at Serbian Parliament. We have also shot in Serbian state prison.”
He further said that Serbia is a very small country and whenever they had to shoot using jets they had to inform seven bordering countries as Russia Ukraine war was also going on.
“Actor Mohit Chauhan has played the role of PM Modi. The film is based on hybrid warfare. The actors are very experienced and they surrendered themselves to the director,” he added.