Indian Tricolour ‘wrong’ drape stands corrected

After an army veteran pointed out incorrect draping of the flag in Operation Safed Sagar, The Free Press Journal has exclusively learnt that the makers have now rectified it

Kabir Singh Bhandari & Shefali Fernandes

Colonel Vembu Shankar, an Indian Army veteran, had raised concerns over a scene in the Netflix web series Operation Safed Sagar: The Untold Story of the Kargil War, alleging that the Indian National Flag has been incorrectly draped over the coffin of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, portrayed by Siddharth in the show.

The veteran shared a screen grab from the series on his Instagram handle. According to the veteran, the coffin is draped in the Indian National Flag, but the positioning of the Tricolour does not comply with the Flag Code of India.

In fact, in the real footage shown in the series depicts the saffron band positioned towards the head of the deceased officer. However, in the recreated scene, the green portion of the flag is reportedly visible, prompting the veteran to argue that the saffron band should have been positioned towards the head.

“I am shocked how the authorities at the Service Headquarters and the military advisors have overlooked this fact,” the veteran said.

He further called for the makers and those responsible for the scene to issue an apology through mainstream media. 

From all the reactions in the comments section, the one which stood out was by one individual who said that while the pointing of the oversight  is a good learning point for future, but should not be a deal breaker for the series, especially since it had been made so beautifully.  Colonel Vembu Shankar also responded to the individual, saying, “Take it down until the edit is done. Which should not take much time. Can easily be done in matter of minutes. In fact, it appears for less than a second. All the producers need to do it edit the scene for that micro second.”

Colonel Shankar is an Indian Army veteran, Shaurya Chakra recipient, and renowned autograph collector with over 10,000 celebrity signatures. He is also the founder of Project Sambandh, a non-profit initiative dedicated to supporting the next-of-kin survivors of military personnel. The Free Press Journal reached out to him, asking about his thoughts and whether he had seen the full series, and he replied telling us that the producers got in touch with him, and the mistake was corrected. “I have seen the full series. It has been very well made. It'll inspire a lot of people to know about our heroes and the contribution of the Indian Air Force. There is nothing against the series that I have. It is just a small glitch of the national flag which was wrongly depicted, but now it has been corrected. I got a message from the producers that it has been corrected,” he told us.