Bollywood filmmaker rushes for Kashmir hero pilot title rights
NEW DELHI: Wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman, the Indian pilot who shot down an enemy F-16, is the current focal point of hero worship.
Social media in India is replete with photos of Abhinandan wannabes sporting his gunslinger-style moustache.
Now, Bollywood directors are lining up for the copyright to the story of his heroics, performed in a MiG-21, with technology from the 1960s. A fighter plane from the 1960s shooting down a stateof-the-art US-made F-16. Few scripts could match such moviemaking possibilities.
An enterprising Bollywood filmmaker has already applied for rights to a title related to the skirmishes over Kashmir, laying the groundwork for a possible future movie about the recent fighting between the two countries.
The application with the Indian Motion Picture Association in Mumbai is for the title Abhinandan, after Abhinandan Varthaman, the Indian air force pilot who was captured last week after ejecting from his plane over Pakistani territory. He has just been returned to India and is recovering in hospital.
“We have received one application for this film title from a well-known filmmaker. It isn’t surprising. I am expecting more. Producers are always looking for stories that will capture the national imagination so whenever any event or incident of this kind happens, they rush to register titles so that they have the option to make the film, even if they don’t actually go ahead,” said Anil Nagrath, the general secretary of the association.
However, he denied reports there had been a scuffle in the association’s office with representatives of production houses jostling to get first rights to Abhinandan and titles such as Pulwama and Balakot. Pulwama is the Indian town where a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle carrying troops, killing more than 40 Indian soldiers on 14 February. Balakot is the town in Pakistan where the Indian government said its jets destroyed a terrorist training camp in retaliation.
“This happens all the time... whenever there is a sensational crime, a natural disaster like an earthquake or a national incident like this, there is a rush to register the title,” said the film critic and analyst Komal Nahta.