Akshay Kumar does a Balraj Sahni in Airlift

Remember the evergreen song ‘Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen‘ by Manna Dey? It came at the beginning of Yash Chopra’s film Waqt when Balraj Sahni playing a prosperous entrepreneur breaks into a celebratory song and dance in sheer contentment.

Akshay’s character’s pride and predicament in director Raja Krishna Menon’s Airlift is modeled on Balraj Sahni in Yash Chopra’s Waqt whose life and family fell apart after a devastating earthquake.

Airlift even has Akshay Kumar singing a song like ‘Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen‘ in the beginning before the invasion of Kuwai by Saddam Hussain.

Says the film’s producer Vikram Malhotra, “The film shows how the poshest most affluent and cushy life can come apart within seconds. We wanted to show Akshay as a rich happy family man who feels like having a good time at a party, flirting with his wife (Nimrat Kaur), just like in the song ‘Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen‘ in Waqt.”