Operation Safed Sagar: Abhijeet Singh Parmar Reveals How the Kargil War Story ‘Chose’ Him

How do you find the courage to write a story that is massive in scale but deeply focused on human emotions? That was one of the key questions raised during the FICCI Frames 2026 panel discussion around Netflix’s Operation Safed Sagar. Writer, creator and showrunner Abhijeet Singh Parmar opened up about the unusual journey of discovering the story, researching the untold aspects of the Kargil War and eventually realising that the project had grown far beyond the small idea he had initially imagined.

Talking about where the story came from, Abhijeet said, “I think it just— to be very honest, I want to second Monika on the fact that stories happen to you. You know, stories happen to you while you're—like, I was swimming in a lot of my own world and my own stories and, you know, some of the coolest things and coolest stories and shows that come out are stories that you don't even know you want. You know, the audiences don't even know that they wanted a version of this story.” He then explained how Operation Safed Sagar unexpectedly came into his life: “And while I was swimming in my own world and in my own stories, Safed Sagar came to me and I realised that no one knew about this untold story of the Kargil War or the Indian forces' involvement in the Kargil War. And it grabbed me, you know, and I thought this is a story waiting to come out, but of course it wasn't a story anyone was looking for.”

What began as a relatively modest writing exercise soon turned into something much larger. Abhijeet recalled, “And the moment I had this idea and the moment I started researching and it started becoming so big just for me. I wanted to write just a 10-15 page document for, you know, and it ended up being a 100-page document, you know. And the moment that happened, I knew that I had to either take it to Netflix or it doesn't happen, you know, because it just needs so much scale along with, you know, shooting jets, so much VFX. So I needed that kind of backing.” The scale of the story demanded aircraft, visual effects and a production of considerable size, but for Abhijeet, the biggest gamble was not necessarily the money behind the show.

He emphasised that the creative bet Netflix took on the project mattered even more than its production scale. Abhijeet said, “But I think what I want to say more than the production backing—and everyone knows that it's a huge budget show—is the creative bet that Netflix took on this, you know, because it's not just a war show. It's a show about humans who create war, humans who go through it, and it's a very emotional show in that respect. So to tell a character-driven story of that detail and to take that creative bet, I would want to stack up the creative bet over the production bet, you know.” His explanation offers an insight into why the series approaches the Kargil War not simply as a large-scale military spectacle, but through the people experiencing and shaping the events.

Abhijeet also shared the philosophy that ultimately guided his writing process. “And I think that's the kind of thing that happens more often than not, that while you're trying to tell something, there is something that just comes out of the blue, grabs you and wants to be told. So I feel stories choose you rather than you choosing stories. And I think in this case that happened.” Once the project became massive in scope, the team had to break it down into smaller modules, with Netflix closely involved throughout the process. He added, “And when then it became massive, then I—we all thought that we have to break it down into smaller modules and every module I think we were very ably supported by Netflix. Like, this is one show where I feel the boundaries between a studio and a platform just completely blurred. We collaborated so much on the show.”

Operation Safed Sagar went on to become one of the major Netflix projects of 2026, with Abhijeet Singh Parmar serving as co-creator, showrunner and head writer. The military drama explores the Indian Air Force’s role during the 1999 Kargil War while placing human stories at the centre of its larger-than-life setting. Parmar’s comments at FICCI Frames 2026 reveal that the project was not born from a conventional formula—it grew organically from a story he felt needed to be told, eventually expanding from a 10-15 page idea into a 100-page document and then into a large-scale streaming series.