Pippa: Ishaan Khattar Reveals ‘Resurrected’ Old PT-76 Tank Blew Up During Shoot –

Pippa, the epic war movie, is all set to release this weekend. The film is based on Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta’s book, The Burning Chaffees, and stars Ishaan Khattar as the lead. Ishaan plays the role of Captain Mehta of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron, who battled on India’s eastern front during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, resulting in the formation of Bangladesh. The film’s title, Pippa, relates to the PT-76 tank that was used during the war. It was popularly known as “Pippa”, which is like an empty tin of ghee that floats on water. In a latest interview, the team of Pippa shared how they used the vintage tank for the shoot and how it blew up during its last leg.

In conversation with The Indian Express, director Raja Krishna Menon shared that the crew was fortunate to have discovered the authentic PT-76 tank from the war. He said, “We found one tank, which was the real PT-76. It was dilapidated, not functional. It took us about 8 months to get it up and running. We did shoot a lot of the film on that tank. We just had to schedule it in a certain way, but it was largely that tank.” The director stated that along with the real war tank, the crew had used similar other tanks for six-seven months.

Ishaan Khattar narrated an interesting anecdote while he was shooting with the PT-76 tank. “Like Raja said about how we resurrected it, its life was literally up till we did the last shot with it. As we were doing the last show, the hull blew up and black smoke started coming out of the tank. Now, I was in the middle of a 100-ft deep lake on the tank!” IE quoted him as saying.

The trailer for Pippa transports the audience to the Battle of Garibpur on India’s eastern border during the 1971 war. Captain Balram Singh Mehta took leadership of the squadron when their leader was killed during the mission. The film is slated to release on Prime Video on November 10 and also stars Mrunal Thakur, Soni Razdan, Priyanshu Painyulli, among others.