Abhay Verma Talks About the Responsibility of Wearing an Air Force Officer’s Uniform for Operation Safed Sagar: It’s the feeling you get when the national anthem is being played

Abhay Verma is all set for the grand release of his ambitious Netflix series, Operation Safed Sagar. As the series inches closer to its release date, the actor shared his experience of playing Flying Officer Rajpal Singh Dhaliwal and also recalled getting teary-eyed while donning the uniform of an officer.

Calling it a “different experience,” Abhay Verma says, “My character’s name is Rajpal Singh Dhaliwal. He was a flying officer, a truly remarkable one, whom we lost in Suryakiran. He was a very brave flying officer, a man of very few words, which is very opposite to me, honestly. So, it was a different experience.”

The actor speaks about the normalcy that comes with being in a vanity van after a regular pack-up. “Normally, what you do is you just take off your costume, your jeans and shirt or whatever you’re wearing, keep it there, and then go home.” Verma highlights the attention that comes with coming out of the heavyweight uniform of an officer. “You realise how carefully you unzip it, take your arms out, and then lay it down nicely. It’s as if it is much bigger, as if it’s a holy book, it’s the Gita, it’s the Quran. It is that,” he explains.

The actor addresses the feeling that comes from donning the uniform that he really believes in, and that places him in a space of representing something special that no one wants to joke about. “And even when it comes to the slightest bit of authenticity, you don’t want to go wrong. You respect it even more than yourself,” he shares and admits it means a lot.

The actor recalls getting teary-eyed while wearing it for the first time. “I can’t forget I got teary-eyed when I wore it for the first time. That was really an elated moment, like the feeling you get when the national anthem is being played during your school days.”

“If you know the meaning of the national anthem, then you will see it differently. As far as the overalls and the G-suit are concerned, when you know the meaning of the Air Force and the role they play, which Operation Vijay will tell you in the nicest and most authentic way, then you will really realise what these overalls and this G-suit mean to me,” he shares.

The actor believes himself to be fortunate enough to be able to wear the uniform. “I was thinking about how few and how fortunate those people are who get the opportunity to wear this uniform after working so hard for it, whereas we get that opportunity by giving an audition. But even for that audition, you have to give a hundred auditions before you become worthy of it.”

Sharing his experience and the overall journey of Operation Safed Sagar, he says, “It was a truly amazing experience sitting in a real MiG-21, something that no civilian can even sit in anymore,” he says and reveals getting teary-eyed while sitting in it for the first time.

Directed by Oni Sen, the series has been created by Abhijeet Singh Parmar and Kushal Srivastava and is produced by Sanjay Routray and Sarita Patil of Matchbox Shots LLP along with Mehboob Pal Singh Brar of Feel Good Films. The ensemble cast features Siddharth, Jimmy Shergill, Abhay Verma, Dia Mirza, Prajakta Koli, Adil Hussain, Mihir Ahuja, Taaruk Raina, Arnav Bhasin, and Amrita Bagchi. The series premieres on August 7, exclusively on Netflix.