‘Ranneeti: Balakot and Beyond’ climax shot inside Serbian parliament, says director Santosh Singh

Mumbai: The upcoming streaming series ‘Ranneeti: Balakot and Beyond’, which stars Jimmy Shergill, Lara Dutta, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi, and Prasanna, had its climax shot in the Serbian parliament. The series is based on the aftermath of the terror attack in Pulwama and the retaliatory action by the Indian Air Force.

The director of the series, Santosh Singh shared that the climax of the series was shot inside the Serbian parliament. He said that a generous part of the series has been shot in Serbia and that he drew from his past experience filming in Serbia for ‘Apharan 2’. He shared that the Serbian parliament offered the perfect backdrop, lending authenticity to the narrative.

The director told IANS: “We shot extensively on all the military bases, on the air bases, we shot in the state prison, we shot our climax in the Serbian parliament. We wanted an international-looking location for this big international council meeting where India and Pakistan are debating with each other. We were talking to them about where we can shoot the part and they offered their parliament. It was so amazing, it looked real and so authentic. It all seems correct in that sense, they really helped us out.”

He further spoke about how shooting in Serbia with the aircraft was an arduous task as seven countries around Serbia had to be informed given that Serbia is a landlocked country and the aircraft after take-off ventures into different airspaces of surrounding countries

Shedding light on the same, he said: “Serbia is a very small country and as soon as it takes off, the aircraft is going into different countries’ airspace. We have to inform seven countries around Serbia that there is a shoot happening and there will be planes flying which are not scheduled so please do not shoot any plane down. It was a big thing, there was always a fear that what if an unscheduled plane flies and gets shot.”

He continued: “The other interesting part was shooting in the Serbian air base because we were shooting with the real jets, their pilots were dressed as Indian Air Force officers and they were flying the planes. It was such a huge planning that went behind shooting the Air Force was something we needed to talk about.”

The series leaves no stone unturned to bring authenticity to the fore as 50 real tanks sourced from the Serbian army were deployed for the shoot with Serbian soldiers posing as Indian Army soldiers.

He said: “It was very difficult to plan and execute the shoot. Talking about the army bases, we shot 50 real tanks which we got from the Serbian army. Again the Serbian army people were dressed as Indian army people and running and doing all the drills that were needed, driving the tanks, fighting the tanks. It was very surreal and very overwhelming and a great experience.”

Produced by Sphire Origins with Sunjoy Wadhwa and Comal Wadhwa at the helm, ‘Ranneeti: Balakot and Beyond’ is set to premiere on April 25 on Jio Cinemas.

–IANS