Oni Sen’s period war drama Operation Safed Sagar opened a treasure trove of lesser known stories from the 1999 Kargil War, where India defeated Pakistan. But there’s a lot that didn’t make it to the final cut of the Netflix India show. Director Oni and actor Amrita Bagchi, who plays war widow Alka Ahuja in the series, spill the beans exclusively to SCREEN on the many deleted scenes.

Alka Ahuja never saw Ajay Ahuja’s face in the coffin

As we see in Operation Safed Sagar, Golden Arrows Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja (played by Siddharth) is captured, tortured, and killed by the Pakistani army. He’s sent back to India in a coffin shorter than his height, and not in a very good condition. So much so that Amrita claims Alka told her that she didn’t even see the face of her late husband in that coffin.

“She didn’t see the body. She just saw the coffin. So, in her head, she’s not allowed that physical closure to happen. That’s why she says, ‘I feel he’ll walk in any time,'” says Amrita. “We didn’t receive his body in a good condition. The coffin was smaller than his height. It was very inhuman. She chose to not see that. Whether at that time, it was her intentional choice or she was suggested not to, I don’t know. I didn’t have the heart to ask,” adds the actor.

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How Baldy bought Ajay Ahuja’s coffin

Another story related to the coffin that we don’t see in Operation Safed Sagar is how Flying Officer Bal Reddy aka Baldy (Mihir Ahuja) buys the new coffin of Ajay Ahuja. Before Ajay left for Srinagar, he forgot to go to the bank to collect some money. So, he asked his wife to send it through a colleague. When he’s handed over the envelope with the money and the letter, he’s about to take off. So, he just keeps it in his overalls.

“Because it was meant to be a regular mission. But it ended up not being one,” says Oni. The envelope was sent back along with Ajay’s coffin. Baldy and Goofy (Arnav Bhasin) then go out to buy a new coffin. “We’d actually shot this beautiful scene when this coffin maker is making hundreds of coffins because the army had lost so many of its men. These were the subtle ways we were trying to talk about the loss which we’d suffered at the moment,” adds the filmmaker.

Golden Arrows in Operation Safed Sagar.

It’s in that moment that Baldy realizes he doesn’t have any money on him to buy the coffin. The only money he has is that envelope. “He has tears in his eyes. He takes out that money, which is Ahuja sir’s money, to buy his coffin. Unfortunately, we couldn’t put that into the show, but it’s such a deep moment. It could’ve added another layer to it, but these are all real stories. They aren’t fictitious,” says Oni.

When Alka Ahuja drives the car left by Ajay Ahuja

There were also a lot more scenes shot to demonstrate the sisterhood between the three soldier wives — Alka, Kamalpreet Kaur (Dia Mirza), and Madhavi Reddy (Prajakta Koli). “That was such an incredible scene. We were all so emotional shooting that scene,” recalls Amrita. She narrates that the scene happens when pregnant Madhavi’s water breaks while her husband Baldy and all the other men are at war.

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“Madhavi falls ill suddenly at Alka’s house. Kamal is like, ‘No one’s here. The boys are all gone. They’re fighting the war. My car is not here. What to do?’ And Alka says, ‘Car toh hai (there’s a car). And then she pulls out the key with a bow on it. Then she goes out to that car, which still has the bow on it,” says Amrita, referring to the car that Ajay books for her as a gift before he leaves for what turns out to be his final mission.

Dia Mirza and Amrita Bagchi in Operation Safed Sagar.

Alka then drives both Kamalpreet and Madhavi to the hospital in that car. “I remember very specifically that Oni told me, ‘When you’re backing the car, I want one victorious smile. It doesn’t even have to be a smile, but just, ‘Ajay prepared me for this.’ This is so many things for her! She says, ‘I have to do this’ and drives. That moment was so cathartic for us to shoot. This is the moment when Alka chooses to be on the bright side of life,” says Amrita.

“She’s nervous. And she can hear Ahuja sir telling her, ‘Ye clutch aise chhodo” (release the clutch like this). And that’s how she drives to the hospital. I wish we could put in all of these tracks,” says Oni. “We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to release these scenes. The extended features were so amazing on DVDs,” he adds, laughing.

Another full-circle moment for Alka Ahuja, which didn’t make it to the final cut, was when in the last scene, she tells Tony aka BS Dhanoa (Jimmy Shergill), “Ajay mujhe gaadi chalana sikha rahe the. Ab dekho, main doosro ki gaadi mein petrol bhar rahi hoon.” Ajay taught Alka how to drive in order to make her independent. Years after his death, she makes her own living by working at a petrol pump. “That line still gives me goosebumps. There are many such full-circle moments, and it’s important to show she chose optimism. Not everybody does,” says Amrita.

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Nawaz Sharif’s relationship with his father

Oni and the creators of Operation Safed Sagar — Kushal Srivastava and Abhijeet Singh Parmar — even humanized Pakistani characters in the show. While one only catches a glimpse of the relationship that then-Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (Vinay Pathak) shares with his father, there was a lot more to that dynamic in the show that didn’t make it to the final cut.

“We were limited by our canvas, and that’s the unfortunate truth. There was so much we’d not only written, but also shot,” says Oni. “There was so much we’d shot on Chow sir and Rao sir, who was the head of maintenance. There were arcs of everybody. None of them was fictitious, they were all real. It’s just that given the time, the balance, and the rhythm of the edits, we had to lose some of it. We didn’t have a choice,” adds the director.