‘Handful of people knew, fewer talked about it’
In 2021, when Vidyut Jammwal announced turning producer with IB 71, he had stated that the film would be based on an episode from the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Two years on, a look at the trailer tells you that Sankalp Reddy’s directorial venture offers a retelling of the 1971 Ganga hijack. “It was a pivotal moment in Indian history, but surprisingly, not many people knew about it,” says Reddy, whose Ghazi (2017) won the National Award for best feature film in Telugu.
The 1971 Indian Airlines hijacking has long been a contentious topic between India and Pakistan. On January 30, 1971, Hashim Qureshi and Ashraf Qureshi -- two Kashmiri separatists allegedly belonging to the National Liberation Front (NLF) -- hijacked a Fokker F27 named Ganga that was flying from Srinagar and diverted it to Lahore airport. The two then demanded the release of 36 members of the Al-Fatah from Indian custody, and a meeting with Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in lieu of the abducted passengers. While the Indian government refused the demand, the All India Radio (AIR) reportedly made an international broadcast stating that Pakistan was behind the hijack. After Hashmi and Ashraf’s meeting with Bhutto and amid rising international pressure, all passengers and crew members were sent back to India and the aircraft was set on fire by Pakistan’s ISI operatives.
Reddy’s spy thriller, also starring Anupam Kher and Vishal Jethwa, focuses on a lesser-known aspect of the episode. The film depicts that Rameshwar Nath Kao, the then-chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), had knowledge of the impending hijacking since early January of 1971. He devised a master plan and used the hijack to strengthen the Indian government’s claims of Pakistan’s ill intentions. The government immediately banned all Pakistan International Airlines flights from its airspace. This, in turn, had a significant impact on troop movement into East Pakistan and gave India an upper hand in the Bangladesh Liberation War in December that year.
Extensive research went into putting the story together. Considering it was a covert operation, Reddy admits that sourcing information was a daunting task. “Many details about the intelligence agency’s strategy were kept under wraps. Only a handful of people had firsthand knowledge of the incident, and even fewer were willing to talk about it. It was important to portray the events accurately, while also keeping the audience engaged. Through meticulous research, we were able to create a film that does justice to the bravery and sacrifice of our soldiers.” Jammwal echoes his sentiments, stating, “IB 71 talks about a breed of people who sacrifice everything for the love of the nation. I [wanted] to bring forth the story of these unnamed soldiers.”
