‘Declassified: Operation Sindoor’ on Discovery is an inside look at what happened over those 88 hours

The makers of the two-part documentary Declassified: Operation Sindoor, streaming on Discovery, are delighted by the response it has received since it dropped on August 15, 2026. Filmmakers Prabhu Asgaonkar and Manika Berry Asgaonkar have made several films on the armed forces. Still, they find the response to their latest documentary “startling because so many people are watching a 90-minute documentary, which is not fiction, nor is it Dhurandhar!” says Manika.Operation Sindoor is about the 88-hour military operation by India on May 7, 2025, in response to the killing of tourists at Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, by militants. The targets of the operation were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.“It is 90 minutes of talking heads,” chips in Prabhu, referring to the format of the documentary, in which senior officials of the Government of India, like the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and the Armed Forces, who were involved in the operation, share what went on behind the operation, from planning to execution. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in a still from ‘Declassified: Operation Sindoor’ | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT “People got to see the real heroes, who are regular people like you and me, who have a huge responsibility,” adds Prabhu.They decided to make the documentary when they realised that there were multiple versions of what went down during the operation. “It captured the imagination of the people like no other operation before. There was such a media frenzy around it. Prabhu and I realised they were not having the conversations we were having with those in the armed forces. There was no one space where the entire story was fitting,” Manika says. A still from ‘Declassified: Operation Sindoor’ | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT They approached the Discovery Channel, stating that they wanted to “put it in one place in long format,” she adds. The story was pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle, in the voices of those who were part of Operation Sindoor, without colouring the narrative in any form.Sai Abhishek, head of Factual Entertainment, Lifestyle and Kids - South Asia, Warner Bros. Discovery, says, “The hook was quite immediate for us. Operation Sindoor was a historic military operation the entire country followed in real time, but there was a lot that the audience did not have access to. When you have the opportunity to hear directly from the military and national security leadership at the centre of those events, alongside commanders and personnel who experienced them on the ground, you know there is a much richer story waiting to be told.”Sai adds that the possibility of connecting those vantage points was exciting creatively. “The same moment can look very different from a war room, a command centre and the frontline. Bringing those experiences together gives a sense of the scale, pressure and human judgement involved that a breaking-news cycle cannot capture. The rare footage added another layer, allowing audiences to see parts of that world while hearing from the people who were actually present. It also felt like the right story to launch the Declassified franchise, setting the tone for the kind of ambitious, premium factual content we want it to represent. The idea is to take audiences inside consequential events through perspectives they would rarely encounter otherwise.” A still from ‘Declassified: Operation Sindoor’ | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Manika and Prabhu did not go in with a script; instead, they built the narrative as each person shared their experiences. “You do not go in for a documentary with a script or a structure in mind. We go in thinking that there is a story to be found there,” says Manika. The officers were given the brief to share their experiences, reconstructing the story rather than creating or scripting one. “The lines were not rehearsed, and none of the interviewees spoke to each other… it was spontaneous,” Prabhu says.Documenting a military operation requires permissions and access. The Asgaonkars are familiar with the process, as they have made several documentary films, including many military-based films like Breaking Point: Belgaum Commando School, Breaking Point: High Altitude Warfare School, Ladakh Warriors: The Sons of the Soil, Special Operations: India-Pathankot, India’s Paratrooper: Earning the Badge, The Artillery - Big Guns of India, The Armoured Corps - India’s Iron Steed and India’s Paratroopers - The Shatrujeet Brigade, among others. Declassified: Operation Sindoor is a collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery. A still from ‘Declassified: Operation Sindoor’ | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT “We had access to material because we had worked with the Armed Forces before; the trust had been built over the years. We wanted to tell it as it was, and not as a ‘who-did-what’ story. It was more a candid telling of what happened,” says Manika. Some of the actual footage is used, but the rest is computer-generated.On how forthcoming the officers were, she adds, “Because of the sensitive nature of their jobs, there is a certain sense of responsibility about what they can and cannot say. They self-edit a lot.” In the documentary, the officers also speak about how they handled themselves in the thick of an emotional operation, which was also demanding in terms of strategising and confidentiality.“It was interesting to see their sense of calm and responsibility towards the country,” Manika says. Officers from the three branches of the defence forces, including the then-chiefs and vice chiefs, talk about what went into executing Operation Sindoor. The documentary peeks into how a military operation is planned right down to the tiniest detail, and how there is, literally, no margin for error.Declassified: Operation Sindoor is streaming on Discovery Channel.