Abhijeet Singh Parmar (Co-creator and show runner) and Mehboob Pal Singh Brar (Co-producer) went through a journey of four and a half years to make Operation Safed Sagar.

Operation Safed Sagar (OSS), has emerged as one of the breakout shows of the year, and India can finally say that we have a show that not only rivals, but is better than the iconic Top Gun (1986). The series is about the Golden Arrows Squadron of the Indian Air Force who led an extraordinary historic, high-altitude mission that altered the course of the 1999 Kargil War and made history as the world’s highest air operation. But behind this hit show is Abhijeet Singh Parmar (Co-creator and show runner) and Mehboob Pal Singh Brar (Co-producer) journey of four and a half years.

Having built their careers on the production side, working across projects such as Gullak, Panchayat 2 and Rocket Boys, the two eventually decided to move from enabling other filmmakers’ visions to building one of their own, ultimately founding Feel Good Films. The story of Operation Safed Sagar itself is equally revealing of that conviction. What began with their discovery of the largely untold story of an Air Force reconnaissance squadron during the Kargil War grew into a four-and-a-half-year journey of research, development and relentless pursuit. They met real-life Air Force officers and veterans and spent time understanding the experiences of their families, and even undertook arduous recce journeys to understand the physical world of the story — including travelling to nearly 16,000 feet in Spiti.

In an interaction with us, both of them told us about their journey, the risks and what this means to them.

When and how did you come up with the idea of OSS?