Mihir Ahuja had just turned one on June 28, 1999. It was a tumultuous time for the country, which was in the thick of the historic Kargil War against Pakistan. Almost a month after Mihir’s first birthday, Indian troops reclaimed the mountain posts from Pakistan army, announcing their victory on July 26, 1999, on what is celebrated as Kargil Vijay Diwas. Little did the one-year-old Mihir know that 27 years later, he’d be seen as an Indian Air Force officer who fought the war in Onir Sen’s period military drama Operation Safed Sagar on Netflix India.

Mihir on playing Flying Officer Baldy

“I can’t even imagine what people in the armed forces go through when they go to war. We could experience not only like even one-fourth of it,” Mihir tells SCREEN. The 28-year-old actor plays Flying Officer CH Bal Reddy aka Baldy in Operation Safed Sagar. Since the show is made in collaboration with the Indian Air Force, Mihir and his fellow cast members got to witness the stories from the war first-hand from soldiers who were on the battlefield, and live in their quarters at air force stations like the one in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

“Even listening to the stories, utne mein hi humari halat kharab ho gayi thi! Imagine being on the battlefield, flying jets, and bombing — it shakes me just thinking of that,” confesses Mihir. “Salute to the pilots and everyone who showed courage and fought for their country,” he adds. Beyond his character, even at a human level, Mihir’s takeaway from Operation Safed Sagar was enormous. “The greatest learning I had from them is how they really live one day at a time. The courage they have is really unmatched,” he says.

Prajakta Koli, who plays his love interest in the show, gets to learn from Alka Ahuja, the widow of Kargil martyr Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja that irrespective of how grave the issue is, an air force wife must not bring it up on the day of a sortie. Mihir also echoed the same, quoting an instance from his personal experience. “We were chilling and having dinner one night, when I asked one of the pilots to come to our shoot the next day. But they said, ‘No, we have our sortie then,'” recalls Mihir, adding, “Even sorties aren’t an easy task.”

Mihir Ahuja and Prajakta Koli in Operation Safed Sagar.

Mihir on shooting with actual fighter jets

Mihir revealed that during the filming, him and fellow cast members were “blessed and grateful” to actually sit in the cockpit of the actual MiG-21 jets that were used in Kargil War. “They just got decommissioned after filming. So, we’re probably the last and only civilians to sit in those jets,” he says. On a lighter note, the actor recounted how watching jets and helicopters fly by became a rather common sight.

“Every day, when we were shooting at the tarmac, we’d see jets flying in front of our eyes. Usually, during shooting, the AD (Assistant Director) spots some car in the background and says, ‘Arey, iss car ko aage karo ya peechhe karo!’ But here, we were doing the same with helicopters. ‘Arey, iss helicopter ko aage karo!’ I was like, is this for real?,” he says, laughing.

Even though none of the actors actually flew any of the jets, even shooting in the 4-feet wide cockpit was challenging, to say the least. “We had some rehearsals to understand the gravitational pull. When you’re flying, the gravitational force is really high. It’s difficult to breathe. We were just sitting in the cockpit, but a breathing technique helped us achieve the pressure on your face and in your gut,” he reveals. But Mihir also admits that within a few takes, they actually felt the “rush” of flying an actual jet. “Just shooting in the cockpit only made us so claustrophobic at times. I don’t know how pilots manage. It’s not an easy job at all. You really, really need guts to be where they are,” he adds.

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Mihir’s arc on Operation Safed Sagar

Operation Safed Sagar valourizes its pilots and soldiers, but not at the cost of diluting their relatability. Which is why Baldy, a 20-something pilot, is seen actively struggling with balancing his dream to become an Indian Air Force officer with his personal life. His girlfriend Madhavi (Prajakta) flees her home and shows up at his station to marry him. He feels so torn that he even asks his seniors to shift him from the Golden Arrows squad. But the love for the nation eventually powers through, as he not only becomes a husband, but also a father, while retaining his spot in the squad and fighting the Kargil War.

Mihir Ahuja and Prajakta Koli in Operation Safed Sagar.

“No one’s life is perfect. Imperfections make a human human. Everyone’s life has the yin and the yang,” says Mihir on the process of tracing his character arc. “By flaws, I don’t mean professional flaws because they’re so trained as pilots. We clearly won the Kargil War, so I don’t see any flaws there. But there are flaws in your personal life,” he adds. “I don’t think we’ve seen that part of the Indian Air Force. Sometimes, they don’t have proper relationships. How do you give time to your family and nation? But these flaws are what make the show great, human, and relatable,” says Mihir.

Mihir points out that showing how a war impacts the lives of the soldiers’ enemy was as much a part of the makers’ vision for Operation Safed Sagar. Whether it’s Madhavi — who keeps to herself the news of her pregnancy because her husband is at war — or Alka (Amrita Bagchi) — who loses her husband in the war — or even Flight Lieutenant Sangy (Taaruk Raina) — who dares to follow in his father’s footsteps despite him dying in a crash — the pilots’ private lives are also as much at the heart of the show as their dedication to Kargil War.

Mihir began his career around the same time as his co-stars Abhay Varma and Taaruk Raina. “Of course, you take a lot from every actor you work with. I go to every set with a clean slate. Even in The Archies, there was so much to learn from my fellow actors,” says the actor, who played Jughead Jones in Zoya Akhtar’s 2023 period coming-of-age musical on Netflix India.

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“They’re all great actors. I’m sure we have such a beautiful set of actors on this show. The camaraderie was great. Chemistry has to be on point, and it was from the very, very first day,” adds Mihir. Though he’s also headlined shows like Maa Ka Sum and Shabad earlier this year, he doesn’t feel the pressure is any different when it comes to ensembles like Made in Heaven, The Archies, and Operation Safed Sagar.

“I feel for me, the pressure is the same. I’m always nervous before a project, but those are good nerves that help me overcome those challenges. So, be it an ensemble or a solo lead, the pressure is to follow the director’s vision and what the script says,” says Mihir. In his latest show, the obvious challenge was to hold his own among a seasoned squad, yet work together towards a larger goal, just like it was for every officer of the Indian Air Force during Kargil War.