Parents of Pilot Who Inspired Aamir’s RDB Speak of Their Battle

Ten years after RDB’s release, Abhijit Gadgil’s parents, the inspiration behind the film, speak to The Quint.

Abhijit Gadgil (second from right), with his family on the occasion of his commissioning by the IAF. (Photo: Kedar Anil Gadgil)

Kavita Gadgil, the mother of Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil who died in a MIG-21 crash in 2001, was the inspiration behind the film Rang De Basanti. Now as the film turns a decade old on January 26, 2016, Mrs Gadgil speaks to The Quint about her battle to make fighter planes safer for ‘our boys’.

Mrs Kavita Gadgil tells us how she fought relentlessly to get the government and the Indian Air Force to act on technical issues which plagued the celebrated fighter planes that had earned it the unfortunate epithet of ‘Flying Coffins’. Now, after the government’s action, there are far fewer MIG-21 accidents than earlier, says Mrs Gadgil.

Captain Anil Gadgil, the father of Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil who died in a crash involving a MIG-21, is a man on a mission. A retired Indian Air Force officer himself, Captain Gadgil runs Jeet Aerospace Institute, named after his late son, Abhijit, who was an IAF pilot.

Gadgil says he hopes “to encourage the youth to consider aviation, specifically military aviation, as a promising, adventurous and rewarding career.”