The plane took off. It never landed. 260 people left the ground that afternoon, only one came back. Milan Sharma lost his sister. Now he is making sure no one forgets.
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Milan Sharma, 38, is a filmmaker based in Vadodara. He is originally from Kurukshetra, Haryana. He first entered the entertainment industry in 2007 as an actor before moving into production and directing. His credits include the Punjabi film ‘Ishq Wala’ (2013), the Gujarati project ‘Ame Chhiye’ (2016), and the Gujarati film ‘Babubhai Sentimental’ (2019), which he directed and produced. He also worked on the web series ‘Slay 8’.
Sharma lost his elder sister, 56-year-old Anju Sharma, in the crash. Anju had boarded AI-171 for a trip to London to meet her daughter. Shortly before departure, she video-called her second daughter, Honey Patel, from inside the aircraft to show the plane to her grandson, who enjoyed watching aeroplanes.
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“She told us, ‘This is Nani’s plane’. We still have that video and her voice,” Honey recalled during a visit to the crash site on the first anniversary of the disaster.
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The family later rushed to Ahmedabad. Honey said: “We searched every floor for Mamma. We went everywhere, but we couldn’t find her.” DNA testing was ultimately required to identify many victims. Anju Sharma’s family received her remains three days after the crash.
Sharma described Anju as more than a sister, saying she had effectively raised him after he moved to Gujarat as a child. “She was not just my sister; she was my mother,” he said.
The London-bound Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into the B.J. Medical College hostel complex in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar area seconds after take-off, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground. In total, 260 people died.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is continuing its investigation, and a final report has not yet been released.
Sharma said he decided to make the film within days of the crash, after witnessing the grief experienced by families who lost relatives in the disaster.
“When the incident happened last year, and we received the news, within a week, after seeing everything that happened, I made up my mind that I would definitely make a film on it,” he told IANS.
He added: “This project will remain my dream project. I am already working on it, and I am certain that I will make this film.”
According to Sharma, the project will focus not only on the crash itself but also on the lives permanently altered by it.
He has already met 20 to 25 affected families and intends to meet as many of the approximately 260 bereaved families as possible.
“I never approached them by saying I am making a film. I met them because I felt their pain was the same as ours. Sometimes grief needs to be shared,” he said.
Sharma said he is collecting personal stories, memories, photographs, and accounts of victims’ final hours, while also documenting the experiences of people who witnessed the disaster unfold.
He recalled speaking to residents living behind the crash site, including a young woman who had worked in the medical college canteen and narrowly escaped after briefly leaving work to deliver medicine to her father.
Sharma said the absence of a final investigation report had strengthened his determination to document the disaster. “One year has passed, and we are still waiting. The final report is very important for us. We want to know what happened. It is not only the people who died. Their families also died in a way,” he said.
He said he would wait for the final accident report before completing the script. The conclusions of investigators would influence how the story is told.
However, he made clear the film would be made regardless of the findings. “If it were the human error, the film would be made. If it were a technical issue, the film would still be made,” he said.
Sharma said the project was expected to be made on a large scale with the support of his production partners. “This is going to be a very big project. It is only the beginning and it will take time,” he told IANS.
He said it was too early to confirm a release date but added that announcements would come in due course.
He also said official permissions would be sought from relevant authorities before production starts.
“For me, this is not just a film. It is something I have to do,” Sharma said.
He acknowledged that losing his sister had deepened his emotional connection to the story. “If my own relative had not been involved, I would still have made a film on this. But perhaps I would not have worked on it with the same passion,” he said.
The crash has also changed how he approaches air travel. “Today I sent a last photograph to my family before take-off. I never used to think like that before,” he said.
With input from IANS.
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