Introduction

Sky Force is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language action drama film centred around India’s first airstrike, the Sargodha airbase attack of Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani air war of 1965. The film stars Akshay Kumar and newcomer Veer Pahariya, alongside Sara Ali Khan and Nimrat Kaur.

Outline

In 1971, the Pakistan Air Force suddenly attack an Indian airbase over the Kashmir conflict. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force captures a Pakistani pilot, Ahmed. Upon interrogating him, Wing Commander K.O. Ahuja discovers that he was awarded for killing an Indian officer in the 1965 war.

In 1965, Ahuja and his teammates including T.K. Vijaya are at the Adampur Airbase. Vijaya a.k.a. Tabby always sets his seniors for breaking protocols nonetheless is a skilled and patriotic pilot. He shares a close bond with Ahuja as he considers him as his mentor while Ahuja sees his late brother Monu in Vijaya. Ahuja’s senior David Lawrence informs him that the USA has strengthened Pakistan by giving them 12 Star Striker Fighter Planes. On receiving confidential information about a possible attack from Pakistan, David instructs Ahuja to go on a recce along with one more officer and cross the border at his own risk. During the recce, Ahuja and Tabby discover several weapons and artillery at the Pakistan border. Despite getting noticed by Pakistani officers, Tabby clicks pictures of the weapons.

After analysing the pictures, Ahuja suggests that India should attack before Pakistan can execute their plan. Lawrence dismisses the idea as the government would not agree with India attacking first as a result of human rights. Soon after, Pakistan attacks the Indian airbase at night, knowing that India does not have any planes that can fight at night. They destroy the airbase, stationed fighter planes, and kill Indian soldiers. In retaliation, the Indian government decide upon a counter attack to destroy Pakistan’s important air bases and their Star Striker planes. While strategising, Ahuja gets to know from the Pakistani PM’s speech that the Star Striker planes are placed in the central part of the country, at the Sargodha Airbase. The mission is named “Sky Force”.

The mission is tough for India, due to the existing planes not having the fuel capacity which can bring them back to Adampur after attacking Sargodha. Ahuja assembles four teams for the mission but on Lawrence’s order, he keeps Tabby on standby and not apart of the four core teams. The mission gets accomplished and all the officers return back to their bases. On returning, Ahuja learns that Tabby took off a few minutes after his designated time and has gone missing. The Indian government turns a blind eye to finding Tabby, labelling him as rebellious for not following orders. In the meantime, Tabby’s wife Geeta urges Ahuja to find him as he had earlier promised her that he will take care of Tabby as his younger brother. Despite his best efforts, he does not receive any support from the government, who try to label his disappearance as his own fault.

In the present in 1971, after several years, Ahuja is guilt-stricken for failing to keep his promise to Geeta and losing another brother in a war. While all the soldiers involved in the mission received Vir Chakra, the authorities leave out Tabby despite his contributions to the mission. Heartbroken, Ahuja removes his Vir Chakra and places it on Tabby’s portrait. After interrogating Ahmed, he becomes closer to locating Tabby, but receives no support from the government to facilitate the investigation.

20 years later, a retired Group captain Ahuja, receives a parcel from Ahmed, which contains a book regarding the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. With more evidences, he successfully reopens the case and even becomes part of the investigating team. They travel across the world to inquire with several people and finally meet Ahmed in Pakistan, who tells them the true story. He recalls having the best fight of his life with an unknown Indian soldier, who dodged US technology and saved himself twice from the missiles. He reveals that the unknown pilot was Tabby, whom he presumed to be dead since the first missile launch. However with his skills and bravery, shot down Ahmed’s aircraft by sacrificing himself and died in Pakistan territory. After being presented with proof of his bravery, Tabby is awarded the Maha Vir Chakra and becomes the only Indian soldier to be posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Wing Commander Kumar Om Ahuja (fictionalisation of Om Prakash Taneja VrC)
• Veer Pahariya as T. Krishna Vijaya “Tabby” (fictionalisation of Ajjamada Boppayya Devayya MVC)
  • Maahir Raghuvanshi as young Tabby
• Sara Ali Khan as Geeta Vijaya
• Nimrat Kaur as Preeti Ahuja
• Sharad Kelkar as Ahmed Hussain (fictionalisation of Squadron Leader Amjad Hussain)
• Mohit Chauhan as Air Chief Marshal Arjun Sinha (fictionalisation of Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh)
• Manish Choudhary as Air Commodore David Lawrance
• Varun Badola as Air Vice Marshal Amit Narang
• Virendra Singh Patyal as Servant of Air Chief Marshal Arjun Sinha
• Anupam Joardar as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, President of India
• Jaywant Wadkar as Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan
• Soham Majmudar as Debashish “Cockroach” Chatterjee
• Abhinav Bhattacharjee as Amod Pandit
• Ritik Ghanshani as Prakash “Panther” Rajput
• Lakshay Kheterpal as Faisal Ali
• Bryan Lawrence as George Red
• Tim Hudson as John Peterson, author of Battle for Pakistan, The Air War of 1965 (fictionalisation of John Fricker)
• Fayaz Khan as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Duck”
• Karan Chaudhary as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Goat”
• Ramakrishna Dixit as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Rhino”
• Ankit Kaushik as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Owl”
• Sagar Rana as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Scorpio”
• Vishal Jinwal as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Shark”
• Lakshay Chawla as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Spider”
• Abhishek Mahendra as Tiger Squadron Pilot “Fox”
• Lal Bahadur Shastri as himself (archival footage)

Production

The film first came into development in June 2022, with pre-production done by March 2023. The film was officially announced on 2 October 2023, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. The film is inspired by India’s retaliatory attack on Pakistan’s Sargodha airbase in the Indo-Pakistani air war of 1965.

Filming

Principal photography began on 31 May 2023 in Mumbai. Filming moved to Lucknow in August 2023. The shooting was officially wrapped up on 26 April 2024.

The film was shot over a period of 100 days (including 60 days for Akshay Kumar) in locations such as Mumbai, Lucknow, Sitapur, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pathankot and United Kingdom. A special song involving Veer Pahariya and Sara Ali Khan was shot in Mussoorie. Filming including patchwork concluded on 17 December 2024.

Soundtrack

The songs of the film are composed by Tanishk Bagchi which marks his debut as a solo composer while the background score is composed by Justin Varghese. The lyrics are written by Irshad Kamil, Manoj Muntashir and Shloke Lal. The first single titled “Maaye” was released on 8 January 2025. The second and third and fourth single titled “Kya Meri Yaad Aati Hai” and “Aankhon Mein Base Ho Tum” and “Maine Dil Se Poochha” was released on 11 January 2024. The third single titled “Rang” was released on 17 January 2025. The 1963 Lata Mangeshkar song “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon” is used for an emotional tribute to India’s soldiers. The fifth single “Tu Hain Toh Main Hoon” was released on 22 January 2025.

Release

Initially planned to release on 02 October 2024, Sky Force was later theatrically released on 24 January 2025 in IMAX, 4DX, D-Box and ICE formats.

Box Office

Pinkvilla reported that after a strong opening weekend (due to heavily discounted ticket rates), the film’s collections witnessed a major drop on Monday. As of 30 January 2025 the film has grossed ₹126.33 crore worldwide.

Controversies

The film was banned across several Arab Gulf states, including the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.

Some in the Kodava community have disapproved of the misrepresentation of Ajjamada B. Devaiah as Tamil in the film,

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s):
  • Abhishek Anil Kapur … (directed by)
  • Sandeep Kewlani … (directed by)
• Producer(s):
  • Ashish Chauhan … executive producer
  • Sunny Denvi … Line Producer
  • Jyoti Deshpande … producer (produced by)
  • Ishita Gala … line producer
  • Amar Kaushik … producer (produced by)
  • Sahil Baber Khan … producer: uk
  • Ashish Nikam … line producer
  • Keval Shah … executive producer
  • Poonam Shivdasani … co-producer
  • Dinesh Vijan … producer (produced by)
• Writer(s):
  • Carl Austin … (written by) (as Carl Austin) (uk) &
  • Aamil Keeyan Khan … (written by)
  • Niren Bhatt … (additional screenplay & dialogues)
• Music:
  • Tanishk Bagchi … (music)
• Cinematography:
  • Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran … director of photography
• Editor(s):
  • A. Sreekar Prasad
• Production:
  • Jio Studios
  • Maddock Films
• Distributor(s):
  • Night Ed Films
• Release Date: 24 January 2025.
• Running Time: 125 minutes.
• Rating: Unknown.
• Country: India.
• Language: Hindi.

Video Link(s)