Filmmaker who lost kin in AI-171 crash plans film on tragedy, calls it his final project

Ahmedabad, June 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) A filmmaker who lost his elder sister in the Air India Flight AI-171 crash has revealed plans to make a feature film based on the disaster, describing it as a personal mission and saying it is likely to be the final project of his career.

Milan Sharma (38), a Vadodara-based filmmaker originally from Kurukshetra in Haryana, said he decided to make the film within days of the crash on June 12 last year, after witnessing the grief experienced by families who lost relatives in one of India’s deadliest aviation disasters.

The London-bound Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into the B.J. Medical College hostel complex in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar area seconds after take-off, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground. In total, 260 people died in the incident.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is continuing its investigation, and a final report has not yet been released.

Milan lost his sister, 56-year-old Anju Sharma, in the crash. Speaking to IANS a year after the tragedy, he said the idea for the film emerged shortly after the accident rather than during the first anniversary commemorations.

“When the incident happened last year, and we received the news, within a week, after seeing everything that happened, I made up my mind that I would definitely make a film on it,” he told IANS.

He added, “This project will remain my dream project. I am already working on it, and I am certain that I will make this film.”

Sharma said the absence of a final investigation report had strengthened his determination to document the disaster and its impact on victims’ families.

“One year has passed, and we are still waiting. The final report is very important for us. We want to know what happened. It is not only the people who died. Their families also died in a way,” he said.

According to Sharma, the project will focus not only on the crash itself but also on the lives permanently altered by it.

He told IANS that he has already met 20 to 25 affected families and intends to meet as many of the approximately 260 bereaved families as possible.

“I never approached them by saying I am making a film. I met them because I felt their pain was the same as ours. Sometimes grief needs to be shared," he said.

Among those he mentioned were families from Mumbai and Vadodara who lost relatives in the crash.

Sharma said he was collecting personal stories, memories, photographs and accounts of victims’ final hours, while also documenting the experiences of people who witnessed the disaster unfold.

He recalled speaking to residents living behind the crash site, including a young woman who had worked in the medical college canteen and narrowly escaped the disaster after briefly leaving work to deliver medicine to her father.

According to Sharma, local residents used handcarts to help transport bodies from the wreckage and played a significant role in the immediate aftermath.

“Thousands of people have their own perspective on what happened. I want to gather those perspectives and present them through a film," he emphasised.

The filmmaker said he would wait for the final accident report before completing the script and that the conclusions of investigators would influence how the story is told.

However, he insisted the film would be made regardless of whether the eventual cause was determined to be human error, a technical malfunction or another factor. “If it were the human error, the film would be made. If it were a technical issue, the film would still be made. The film would be made irrespective of the outcome," he said.

He added that official permissions would be sought from relevant authorities before production starts.

Sharma said the project was expected to be made on a large scale with the support of his production partners and associates. “This is going to be a very big project. It is only the beginning and it will take time," he told IANS.

He acknowledged that losing his sister had deepened his emotional connection to the story. “If my own relative had not been involved, I would still have made a film on this. But perhaps I would not have worked on it with the same passion,” he said.

The crash has also changed his relationship with air travel. Sharma said he now feels anxious whenever he boards an aircraft. “Today I sent a last photograph to my family before take-off. I never used to think like that before,” he said.

The filmmaker first entered the entertainment industry in 2007 as an actor before moving into production and directing. He produced the Punjabi film 'Ishq Wala' in 2013 and the Gujarati project 'Ame Chhiye' in 2016.

In 2019, he directed and produced the Gujarati film 'Babubhai Sentimental'. His other projects include the web series 'Slay 8', while he is currently working on the Gujarati project 'Shreeleela' and the Hindi project 'Karrmleela'.

Sharma said many of his productions are inspired by real-life events and contemporary social issues. “I do not like making films just for the sake of making films. I prefer stories that are happening in society,” he said.

Drawing a comparison with filmmakers who devote years to a single work, Sharma said the scale of the undertaking meant he could not predict when the film would be completed. “It is too early to say when it will be released, but there will be announcements in due course,” he said.

His sister had boarded AI-171 for a trip to London to meet her daughter. Shortly before departure, she video-called her second daughter, Honey Patel, from inside the aircraft to show the plane to her grandson, who enjoyed watching aeroplanes.

“She told us, ‘This is Nani’s plane’. We still have that video and her voice,” Honey recalled during a visit to the crash site on the first anniversary of the disaster.

The family later rushed to Ahmedabad after learning of reports that a London-bound aircraft had crashed. Initially, they hoped Anju might have survived and been taken to a hospital. “We searched every floor for Mamma. We went everywhere, but we couldn’t find her,” Honey said.

DNA testing was ultimately required to identify many victims because of the condition of the remains.

Anju Sharma’s family received her remains three days after the crash. For Milan, the loss remains difficult to comprehend. “The last time I came here was to drop my sister. I never imagined I would later bring her back in a coffin,” he said.

He described Anju as more than a sister, saying she had effectively raised him after he moved to Gujarat as a child.

“She was not just my sister; she was my mother,” he said. The family continues to await the final findings of investigators.

Milan believes the report will help answer questions that have remained unresolved for more than a year, while also shaping the film he hopes will preserve the stories of those whose lives were forever changed by the crash. “For me, this is not just a film. It is something I have to do," he noted.

Source: IANS