WORLD ENTERTAINMENT: Bollywood Movie Depicts Escape From Saddam

The release of the film 'Airlift' days before India celebrates its 67th Republic day is sure to do good business as patriotic fervour grips the country.

Airlift is a story of one of the largest air evacuations of people in the world. It happened when Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990.
At the time, more than 170,000 Indians were there.

With the country in turmoil and its future unknown, this large diaspora was desperate to leave.

The government of India was caught unawares and overwhelmed by the numbers.

The Indian mission in Kuwait was shifted to Basra in Iraq due to security reasons, leaving thousands of Indians stranded.

Top Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar plays the role of Ranjit Katiyal, a wealthy businessman with good connections in Kuwait.

Finding himself homeless and lacking support, he sets out to organise and facilitate the evacuation.

Speaking to Sky News, Kumar said: "If Americans want to show they saved six people when they made such a big thing of Argo - and obviously they should - we saved 170,000 people. So why not show it?

"When I came to know of the whole incident, I decided to put (up) my money and make the film."

At that time the Indian government did not want to invite the wrath of the international community by making deals with Hussein.

I.K.Gujral, the Indian foreign minister, got an assurance of safe passage for the Indians from the Iraqi president.

But on the ground there was no mechanism to evacuate such a sizeable number.

There is not much written or documented about what really happened.

According to the film-makers, it was the wealthy businessman who organised the evacuation.

Every day thousands of stranded Indians were taken into Jordan, from where they were repatriated.

But there is no mention of the contribution of this businessman in any official records.

Kumar said: "Because of political reasons this whole thing was done in hush hush.

"I think only one article came in 1990 about this whole incident. We won't get into the political details.

"But now it's ok, things are different now, we can talk about it."

Except for a few thousand, who decided to stay back in Kuwait, all were taken out before the start of Operation Desert Shield.

A total of 488 Air India flights and a few military aircrafts evacuated all Indians in 59 days.

To put it in perspective, the "Berlin Airlift", at the end of the Second World War, evacuated 48,000 people in two years.

Airlift is a bold attempt to go beyond Indian shores.

While Bollywood is one of the world's largest film producers, it is no match for Hollywood.

Kumar said: "Because of obvious reason - money - their budgets are very different from ours, plus their release worldwide in theatres is maybe 50 times more.

"Plus they get a lot of support from the government - we are still striving to get this support."

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