On January 30, 1971, an Indian airline plane named Ganga was hijacked on its way from Srinagar to Jammu by two young cousins, Hashim Quereshi and Ashraf Quereshi, with a toy pistol and a wooden grenade. Once the hijackers landed in Lahore, they demanded the release of 36 jailed members of NLF (National Liberation Front) of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, besides seeking political asylum in Pakistan. However, they succumbed to pressure from the airport authorities and ended up releasing all the passengers and crew. The two hijacking cousins were given the rousing welcome of heroes in Pakistan. And for some inexplicable reason, the plane was burned down by the Pakistani authorities.
Three months after this incident, the Indian government banned all the flights of Pakistan flying over Indian territory exposing that Pakistani state openly and actively supports terrorists. However, like a thriller movie's climax, it was later revealed that the hijack was actually staged by India. Apparently, Hashim Qureshi was arrested by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) while he was trying to re-enter the Indian-administered Kashmir with arms and equipment. Qureshi cracked upon interrogation and disclosed their plan to hijack the plane which would be piloted by Rajiv Gandhi, son of India's then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Upon learning of this startling revelation, RAW and BSF decided to beat Pakistan at their own game and persuaded Qureshi to work for them in order to save him from execution by the Indian authorities. They planned to hijack an Indian Airlines aircraft flying from Srinagar to Lahore. In return, he would demand the release of 36 members of the Al-Fatah who were in jail in India. A Fokker Friendship aircraft, Ganga, which was retired from Indian Airlines was inducted for this operation. The plane was hijacked and everything went as planned.
(Image Soure: Defence Update)
Now, Bollywood is all set to bring this historic event to the silver screen. Peepingmoon.com has exclusively learned that Sony Pictures is working on a big-budget movie based on the Ganga hijack drama, regarded as one of India’s most popular lore of spying. The studio is currently developing the script with its in-house writers' team and has planned to make it on a huge scale.
"The team has done an intense research to get a solid script for the project. Once they're ready with the script, the studio will approach directors and actors. The timeline of shooting is not decided but it's expected to go on floors only later next year," an industry source said.
Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Networks India is next gearing up for the release of Vidya Balan's Shakuntala Devi that premieres directly on Amazon Prime Video on 31st July. The studio also has Shabbir Khan's Nikamma, Umesh Shukla's Aankh Micholi in the pipeline besides Taapsee Pannu's Loop Lapeta and Aparshakti Khurrana's Helmet.
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