Kartik Aaryan to Lead Vivek Agnihotri’s Operation Sindoor, T-Series Backs Real-Life Military Drama

Kartik Aaryan will headline Operation Sindoor, Vivek Agnihotri’s upcoming film based on one of the most consequential military chapters in recent Indian history. Variety India exclusively reported the casting on October 28, 2026, marking the first collaboration between Aaryan and Agnihotri. The film will be backed by Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series and Agnihotri’s banner, I Am Buddha Productions.

The film is based on Lt. Gen. K. J. S. ‘Tiny’ Dhillon’s book Operation Sindoor: The Untold Story of India’s Deep Strikes Inside Pakistan. Agnihotri first announced the project on social media in March, writing that it was “rooted in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and backed by extensive, ground-level research in collaboration with multiple wings of the Indian Armed Forces,” and describing it as “a story drawn from reality… not to create noise, but to confront it: with facts, with clarity, and the magic of cinema.” Operation Sindoor itself was launched by India on May 7, 2025, following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 that killed 26 people, most of them tourists; India targeted nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and the two countries agreed to halt hostilities on May 10.

Aaryan will begin work on the film after wrapping Shimit Amin’s Captain India, which he is currently shooting and which is set against the backdrop of the Houthi conflict in Yemen. Earlier reports had suggested Varun Dhawan had been approached for Operation Sindoor, but the role has now gone to Aaryan. The casting adds a politically charged military drama to an already varied slate: his next release is Naagzilla, arriving on February 12, 2027, followed by an untitled musical romantic drama opposite Sreeleela on April 30, 2027, directed by Anurag Basu. He has also reunited with Kabir Khan after Chandu Champion for an untitled sports biopic on Kashmiri kickboxing champion Tajamul Islam, alongside Anees Bazmee’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 4 and Karan Johar’s Kaaliya.

Agnihotri, known for The Tashkent Files, The Kashmir Files, The Vaccine War and The Bengal Files, has built his recent career on dramatising contested real-life chapters, and Operation Sindoor continues that pattern — this time with a mainstream star at its centre rather than an ensemble of character actors.

Here is the Filmverse take: this casting is a bet in both directions. For Agnihotri, Aaryan brings the opening-weekend pull his recent films have not had, and a younger audience that does not arrive pre-convinced. For Aaryan, it is the riskiest move of his slate: a film about an operation barely a year old, where the audience already knows the headlines and will judge every scene against its own memory of the news. That is precisely why the pairing is interesting. If Agnihotri treats the material as drama rather than declaration, and Aaryan plays the soldier rather than the star, Operation Sindoor could be the film that moves both men out of their comfort zones at once. If either of them plays it safe, it will be remembered as a headline, not a film.

Sources: Variety India, Box Office Worldwide, MensXP, iDiva