During Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Pakistani planes dropped napalm bombs on the Bhuj airstrip, raiding it 35 times in 14 days with attacks by 92 bombs and 22 rockets. 300 women, all daily wagers, were summoned from the nearby Madhapar village to rebuild the tattered air strip within 72 hours.
Bhuj: The Pride Of India is a retelling of this story in the shrill and familiar template of effective war-mongering — the trailer begins with "We Failed" and ends with "We Retaliated", buoyed by the moving words of Bismil Azimabadi and Ram Prasad Bismil, " Khoon se khelenge holi 'gar vatan mushkil mein hai. Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai".
Ajay Devgn plays IAF squadron leader Vijay Karnik, Sanjay Dutt plays an Indian Army Scout Ranchordas Pagi, Sonakshi Sinha plays Sunderben Jetha Madharparya who mobilizes the women, and Nora Fatehi plays a spy, Heena Rehman. The film also stars Ammy Virk, Sharad Kelkar, Pranitha Subhash, and Ihana Dhillon. The film is written by Abhishek Dudhaiya, Raman Kumar, Ritesh Shah, and Pooja Bhavoria.
Directed by Abhishek Dudhaiya, who has worked in television before this, and produced by Bhushan Kumar, Ginny Khanuja, Krishan Kumar, Kumar Mangat Pathak, Bunny Sanghavi, Vajir Singh & Abhishek Dudhaiya, the film premieres on Disney+Hotstar on 13th August 2021.