Abhinandan’s father sees reel turn real; worked on Tamil film where Pakistan arrests IAF pilot

Chennai: Pakistan claims that Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, the India Air Force (IAF) pilot is currently in its custody.

It can be called a coincidence, but it is the truth that Abhinandan’s father was a consultant to a Tamil film that was centred around an IAF pilot, who gets arrested by Pakistan.

Air Marshal S Varthaman was hired as a consultant for the Tamil film Kaatru Veliyidai, a 2017 Tamil flick.

In the film, the main actor Karthi is an IAF pilot and his jet gets shot down in Rawalpindi in 1998, during the Kargil war. Later, he gets arrested by the Pakistan Army, who end up torturing him in captivity. The movie was written and directed by Mani Ratnam. The film starred Karthi and Aditi Rao Hydari.

On Wednesday, the Pakistan Army claimed to have captured Wing Commander Abhinandan. According to the Indian side, one of the IAF pilots took off in a MiG-21 Bison jet, but has not returned so far. 

Claiming his capture, the Pakistan Army put out a video of Abhinandan on social media, which has created an uproar. 

MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar confirmed that India had lost one MiG-21 Bison aircraft and its pilot was missing in action, but did not confirm the veracity of Pakistani claim.

In the video, a blindfolded man wearing a flight suit can be seen identifying himself and giving out his service number, as per protocol for captured officers during conflicts. 

The blindfolded man can be seen bleeding from a possible head injury, requesting his captors to identify themselves. 

The video was released after a press conference held by the spokesman of the Pakistani armed forces Major General Asif Ghafoor. The video has gone viral on the internet, but the Pakistan Army has deleted it from its Twitter handle. 

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