The film industry went into a frenzy as filmmakers rushed to register the title “Operation Sindoor” within hours of India’s precision strikes against nine terror hideouts deep within Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir under Operation Sindoor. According to our sources, the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) has received 12 applications for title registration, followed by the Western India Film Producers Association (WIFPA) with two and the Producers’ Guild of India with ten.
In the procedure, producers are required to register their film titles with one of the four organisations: the Producers Guild of India, the Indian Film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC), WIFPA, or IMPPA. Further explaining the process of securing the title, producer Ashoke Pandit, a member of IMPPA and among the early applicants, tells us, “The time you register your title gets stamped and the respective producers’ bodies confirm the time at which the application was made. Later, letters are exchanged between these film bodies confirming the name of the filmmaker who first managed to file the application. We get to know the result in the next meeting of the four producers’ bodies.”
Vishal Sarroye, a director from Mumbai who has also applied for the title, says he realised the operation’s name would be a powerful movie title as soon as he saw it on television. Additionally, he informs us that he want to narrate the story from a female point of view. “When I saw the name ‘Operation Sindoor’ I felt ki ye title itna strong hai. Ye feeling thi humare andar ki humari behno ka sindoor le liya. It’s definitely an Uri kind of story which is impactful and people should know what exactly Operation Sindoor is. I am thinking of my story on Operation Sindoor with women leading it. The way two women officers (Col Sofia Quraishi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh) briefed the country about the operation, I want to make my film as a woman-oriented film. I don’t know if I will get the title or not but I have applied in the film and web series section under languages across the country.”
The Indian Film and Television Producers Council (IFTPC) has received multiple applications for the “Operation Sindoor” and “Mission Pahalgam,” according to JD Majethia, Chairman of the Television & Web Wing of the organisation. He stated that he firmly believes that it is not a good idea to make films about Indian military activities, even though he was unable to provide an exact number of applications received. He says, “Main aisa manta hun ki military action ke topic pe jo film banti hai woh do-ek saal mein banti hai, woh nahi banni chahiye. The most important part of it is the process ki humne kaise planning kiya and attack kiya. Ab manoranjan ke liye uska climax theek hai but in that process we are showing our intelligence agencies investigation and we end up sharing a big secret of our country with the enemies. The detail of the intelligence shouldn’t be shared but any filmmaker will do the due diligence of getting details right. May be families of the Pahalgam attack might want to forget this in future but this film will remind them forever. So, I feel we should not do such a thing and it is my personal opinion.”
According to a source, a number of filmmakers have also applied for the Operation Sindoor trademark in addition to registering the title. A trademark allows other filmmakers to produce a film on the same subject, whereas a title can only be used by one director. Additionally, it was discovered that Reliance Industry Limited, owned by Mukesh Ambani, is one of the trademark owners of Operation Sindoor. The corporation did, however, withdraw the trademark application “which was filed inadvertently by a junior person without authorisation,” according to a statement released on Thursday.
