Last year, Abhishek Kapoor had announced that he's joining hands with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Bhushan Kumar on a film based on the Balakot Air Strike in 2019. After the Pulwama attack where 40 CRPF personnel were killed on February 14, the Balakot airstrike was conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the early morning hours of February 26 when the Indian warplanes launched an airstrike targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist camp in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Post Uri: The Surgical Strike that captured the Uri attack, Gattu had decided to bring out the story behind the Pulwama attack and the air strike on celluloid.
Now, we hear that the makers have finally zeroed in on their male lead. A source tells us, "The untitled project on Balakot Air Strike will mostly be South superstar Vijay Deverakonda's big Bollywood debut. While his next film Fighter will be dubbed in Hindi and given a pan-India release, Abhishek's directorial will be his full-fledged Hindi feature. He will play the role of Wing Commander and national hero Abhinandan Varthaman who was kept captive in Pakistan for 60 hours following the India-Pakistan standoff. The film will trace the Pulwama attack, the air strike and Abhinandan's time in captivity in the neighbouring country and his return to India." 
The Arjun Reddy star has liked the script and also given a verbal nod to it. "When Vijay was offered the project, he expressed his interest in it. While he still has not signed on the dotted line, the Covid outbreak delayed things further. Right now, the team has no clue of when to bring the film on floors. Abhishek will first finish his film with Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor and then proceed with this ambitious project." We reached out to both Abhishek Kapoor and T-Series but they decided not to respond to our query.
