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Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved...

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved up and revived in the past few years, AI official sources said.   It marked a symbolic milestone for Air India itself - founded in 1932 by the legendary Bharat Ratna J. R. R. Tata - which once ruled the roost and was India’s pride in the global skies.   Once renowned for its royal service with the iconic Maharaja welcoming fliers on board, in 1953 it was taken over by the government of India. After years of piling losses, ageing aircraft, decline in operations and standards – almost like a Maharaja turning a pauper - it returned to the Tata Group four years ago.   This time it was not just the aircraft, the brand and the deflated Maharaja coming into the large-hearted Tata Group stables, but a formidable challenge to ensure that the airline could regain its old glory and glitter. Of the total around 190 aircraft in its fleet were 30 – or 15 pc – that had been grounded and neglected for years.   At that time, the late Ratan N. Tata had directed that all these valuable aircraft must be revived as far as possible and join the fleet. Accordingly, the VT-ALL, languishing at Nagpur for nearly five years, was ‘hospitalized’ at the Air India Engineering Service Ltd., its MRO facility in May 2025.   New Avatar Then started a thorough, painstaking nose-to-tail restoration of an unprecedented scale, in which over 3000 critical components were replaced, over 4,000 maintenance tasks executed, besides key structural upgrades like the longeron modification, engines, auxiliary power units, avionics, hydraulics, landing gears and almost every vital system was rebuilt or replaced.   After the repairs, the old aircraft was reborn, under the gaze of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and technical assistance from Boeing, and the new ‘avatar’ jetliner emerged with the highest global safety standards.   The aircraft cleared all the rigorous checks, a successful test flight, earned the mandatory Airworthiness Review Certificate and then made its maiden commercial flight from Monday, March 16 – after a wait of six years.   Sturdy Fliers Created in 1946 to become an instant global icon, the Air India’s mascot Maharaja now sports a youthful and chic look, a welcome with folded hands, closed eyes, featuring a bejewelled turban, stylish jootis, and a textured kurta in Air India’s new colours. He is prominently visible at various touch-points in a flyer’s journey, such as First Class, exclusive lounges, and luxury products.   Today, he commands a mix fleet of around 190 narrow and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft like : A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321neo, A350-900 and B787-8, B787-9, B7770200LR, B-777-300ER. With the merger of Vistara and agreements signed for 10 A350 and 90 A320 aircraft, the Maharaja’s fleet is slated to soar to some 570 in the near future.

Why Ganguly’s Biopic is a Bad Idea

Updated: Jul 2, 2025

Bollywood’s sports biopics are often whitewashed — stripped of controversy and seemingly vetted by the sportsperson’s PR team.

Cricket and films, the two most potent ‘religions’ in India, have had unions time and again. At times, the results have been thrilling surprises — like MS Dhoni: The Untold Story — and at others, they've turned into box office flops or forgettable duds, like 83, Azhar, and Shabaash Mithu. The Hindi film industry has also ventured beyond cricket, exploring biopics on a range of other sports — Saina (badminton), Mary Kom (boxing), Budhia Singh: Born to Run (marathon), Soorma (hockey), Toolsidas Junior (snooker), Chandu Champion (Paralympic swimming), and Paan Singh Tomar (steeplechase).  Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (sprinting) was the only film that was well made and looked and felt authentic. Recently, Sourav Ganguly confirmed that a biopic is being made on his life, and actor Rajkummar Rao will play the titular role. Similarly, there have been talks of a biopic on Vinod Kambli for years. The million-dollar question is: why this obsession with sportsperson's biopics? The answer is simple — money. The industry believes that since sports and sportspersons, especially cricketers, are so popular in India, they can capitalise on that popularity.

 

Up until last year, there was a lot of brouhaha about Chakda ‘Xpress starring Anushka Sharma, based on the life of India’s female cricket star Jhulan Goswami. The film never saw the light of day (Thank God!) despite heavy backing from Netflix. No one knows what exactly happened, but when I saw the teaser of the now-unreleased film, I was shocked! First of all, the actor didn’t look anything like Jhulan. On top of it, the Bengali accent sounded caricaturish. I was immediately repulsed by the lack of authenticity. 

 

The fact is, Bollywood doesn’t have what it takes to make an authentic biopic. Everything is whitewashed. Take, for example, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, leave aside the brilliant performance by the late Sushant Singh Rajput, and look at the story… Dhoni is depicted as too good to be true. No controversial aspect of his life is shown, and everything seems like it was screened 10 times through the cricket legend’s PR before adding it to the script. 

Then there was a ‘documentary’ on Sachin Tendulkar titled Sachin: A Billion Dreams. Despite Tendulkar’s legendary status― the ‘master blaster’ who managed to reach dizzying heights, broke countless records, and has billions of fans across the globe ―the film bombed. The reason? It lacked an emotional connection with the audience. 


The problem with Bollywood is that if one film does well, they all jump on the bandwagon to repeat the same magic to earn moolah. If a South Indian film has done well, they want to remake it. Believe me when I say this, to date, not a single Hindi remake of a South Indian film has been better than its original (despite a much bigger budget and production values). The X-factor is always missing. 

 

Films on sports personalities have it all: an underdog, a struggle phase, a rise to fame, success, sex, drugs, family drama, romance, downfall, and subsequent redemption. However, Bollywood rarely gets it right, and in the quest to please everyone (especially the person being depicted), the film loses its soul.

 

Coming back to the Ganguly biopic, no doubt Rao is a brilliant actor, but will the makers dare to show the good as well as the flawed side of the sportsman being depicted, or will they do another Dhoni? Also, think about it, who is really interested in watching Sourav Ganguly’s biopic? Rao’s films have not exactly been box-office hits recently, and Ganguly (Dada) is a has-been cricketer who was more in the news back in the day for his alleged extramarital affairs with Nagma and Vaishali Dalmiya and certain other scandals (tiff with Virat Kohli, Chappell–Ganguly controversy, etc.). Only time will tell if the film ever gets made and released. Till then, if you want to watch solid sports-based films, watch the following (no, they are not biographies):  Chak De! India, Iqbal, Kai Po Che!, Saala Khadoos, Rashmi Rocket, Ghoomer, and of course Lagaan.

 

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