Ahead of the release of AIRLIFT, which tells the story of one man’s efforts to evacuate to safety thousands of Indian civilians displaced during the Gulf War of 1990, international superstar Akshay Kumar has expressed his respect to Jordan and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah on their unyielding efforts to protect and help refugees at a time when the world is once again experiencing a major refugee crisis
Akshay Kumar took to the social networking site Twitter to spotlight the pain and suffering caused by war on the lives of those caught up in conflict. He tweeted:
Felt the pain of #refugees during @AirliftFilm filming.Respect to Jordan & change-maker @QueenRania's ongoing efforts to protect refugees
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) January 13, 2016
Airlift brings to the fore the little known story of how the peace-loving nation of Jordan helped in the evacuation of 170,000 Indian refugees from Kuwait back to their homeland of India during the Gulf War of 1990. Billed as the largest human evacuation in history, the incident has found its way into the Guinness Book Of World Records. In a cynical world, where one often wonders what a country has done for them, this is a stark reminder of what the country did, not for one or ten, but for 170,000 of its own. Airlift marks an event in history which has almost been lost in the sands of time, but is an event we all need to remember.
Ranjit Katyal (the character played by Akshay Kumar), along with the many Indian refugees, travel thousands of kilometres across the border into Amman, Jordan, where they find a safe passage across the border. From Amman, Jordan the Indian government flew over 488 Air India commercial flights over a period of 59 days to bring all the Indian civilians back to India.
Airlift is directed by Raja Krishna Menon and stars Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur (Homeland, The Lunchbox).
The film releases internationally on 21st January 2016 in the UAE and 22 January internationally through B4U.
