With Sky Force, Bollywood attempts to push the limits of aerial action filmmaking. These films are a thrilling mix of drama, courage, and adrenaline-filled action. These movies showcase the skies as a battlefield, with daring fighter pilots, tense dogfights, and emotional human stories. While Hollywood has embraced this genre with iconic films like Top Gun (1986) and its massive sequel Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Bollywood has had a more complicated journey. Despite India’s rich aviation history, aerial action films have struggled to take off in Bollywood, with only a handful of attempts over the decades.
After nearly a quarter of independence, the 1970s saw the first major attempts to bring aerial action to Hindi cinema. Ramanand Sagar’s Lalkar (1972) and Chetan Anand’s Hindustan Ki Kasam (1973) focused on the heroics of the Indian Air Force. Both films showcased impressive aerial sequences for their time and highlighted themes of patriotism and bravery. Unfortunately, audiences didn’t respond as expected, and both films failed at the box office. These early disappointments set the genre back, leaving filmmakers hesitant to explore it further.
The 1980s brought a glimmer of hope with Vijeta (1982), directed by Govind Nihalani and produced by Shashi Kapoor. The film told a deeply personal story of a young pilot and his struggles, blending emotional depth with stunning aerial sequences. Vijeta received critical acclaim and won awards, but despite its success, it didn’t inspire other filmmakers to dive into this genre. Aerial action once again faded into the background.
In more recent years, Bollywood has made a few attempts to revive the aerial action genre, but the results have been mixed. Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020) focused on the inspiring story of India’s first female Air Force officer in combat but leaned more toward personal drama than full-blown action. Bhuj: The Pride of India (2021), starring Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt, included aerial sequences but was bogged down by poor execution and reviews. Ajay Devgn returned with Runway 34 (2022), a film that brought tension and drama to the cockpit but wasn’t a true aerial action movie. Similarly, Kangana Ranaut’s Tejas (2023) promised high-octane action but couldn’t deliver the excitement audiences expected, receiving mixed reviews and a lukewarm reception.
The year 2024 marked a turning point for aerial action films in Bollywood. Two big releases, Operation Valentine and Fighter, arrived on the scene. Operation Valentine, a bilingual film starring Varun Tej, tried to bring aerial action to a wider audience by releasing in Hindi and Telugu. However, it didn’t quite meet expectations. On the other hand, Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone’s Fighter made a stronger impact. Promoted as India’s first full-fledged aerial action film, Fighter received mixed reviews but managed to perform decently at the box office, signaling a growing interest in this genre among Indian viewers.
Now, the spotlight is on the recently released Sky force, starring Akshay Kumar. The film, a tribute to the bravery of the Indian Air Force, promises intense aerial action and emotional storytelling. With its big-scale production and a charismatic lead, Sky force has the potential to redefine this underexplored genre in Bollywood. Whether it will succeed in capturing audience attention and reigniting interest in aerial action films remains to be seen.
Bollywood’s journey with aerial action films has been a story of stops and starts, with moments of brilliance often overshadowed by inconsistency. As audiences grow more exposed to global cinema and demand higher standards of storytelling and technical execution, there is immense potential for this genre to thrive. With films like Fighter and Sky force, Bollywood appears to be moving in the right direction, inching closer to creating aerial spectacles that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their Hollywood counterparts. Whether this momentum continues will depend not just on technical brilliance but also on the ability of filmmakers to craft emotionally resonant stories that soar as high as the jets they feature.
