A famous tank from a crucial battle comes to life after more than three decades for a film that hopes to shed light on what happened behind the scenes at the Battle of Garibpur. Actor Ishaan Khatter-led war film Pippa is finally set to release on November 10 and the actor says it was pure destiny how he filmed this much-awaited feature.
Directed by Raja Krishna Menon, the film is based on the book The Burning Chaffies written by Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta, starring Ishaan. Pippa is based on the Battle of Garibpur, a crucial conflict during the India-Pakistan War of 1971, which played a vital role in Bangladesh’s fight for independence with the help of the Indian Army.
The film takes its title from the amphibious warfare tank PT-76, popularly known as ‘Pippa’, which is like an empty can of ghee that floats on water. In an interview with Indianexpress.com, Raja Krishna Menon said that the team was lucky to get an original PT-76 tank from the war.
The filmmaker said, though it is not in working condition, but thanks to the Indian Army, they got it operational in about eight months. We came across a tank that was an actual PT-76, but it was pretty beat up and didn’t work. It took us a while to get it going, like eight months or so. We shot a lot of the film on that tank. We just had to schedule it a certain way, but it was pretty much the same tank.
In addition to the OG battle tank, the Pippa team spent six-seven months setting up similar tanks for the shoot. “We got the production design to make a bunch of tanks that could even swim! It took us about six-seven months to build the tanks, then do their water testing, land testing, it also partly includes VFX. The entire team did a great job in making this happen.”
Ishaan, who plays Captain Mehta of the 45th Cavalry Tank Squadron, said swimming alive on a moving tank was the experience of a lifetime – which was spoiled on the last day of the required one.
Let me share with you a remarkable tale concerning the PT-76. That’s how we revived it, as King said, but by the time we did the last shot with it its life was literally over. As we were doing the last show, the hull burst and black smoke started coming out of the tank. Now, I was in the middle of a 100 feet deep lake on the tank!
“When things got bad, we started saying, ‘Oh OK, this is a problem.’ We had to turn back, get back on the ground. Our driver was Mondala sahib, a 60-year-old soldier, he was recruited in 1972 and he drove the real tank for us in the film. He came out and said, ‘Sir ‘That’s it.’ It took its last breath in the last shot and now it is gone. It came alive only to give us the film!” He added.