Mihir Ahuja on 'Operation Safed Sagar' and why success still makes him nervous

There is a certain kind of actor who arrives with fanfare, and then there are those who believe in soft landings—Mihir Ahuja belongs to the latter camp. From his early roles in Super 30 (2019), Made in Heaven season 2 (2023), and The Archies (2023), to growing into the character of Flying Officer CH Bal Reddy aka Baldy on Netflix’s upcoming military drama, Operation Safed Sagar—his trajectory has been defined less by spectacle, more by momentum. He answers questions the same way he seems to approach his career. Rarely rushing to fill the silence. However, success hasn’t made him any calmer: “The nerves only increase,” he admits, almost sheepishly. While filming itself rarely unsettles him (“you’ve done your homework by then”) the days leading up to a release are another story. Sleepless nights have quietly become a part of the process. “You just want people to like what you’ve made. That’s the pressure that gets to your head.” It’s a refreshingly honest confession in an industry that often mistakes confidence for certainty. And, that’s what makes Ahuja so easy to root for.

Good nerves

Ask the 28-year-old to reflect on the last few years, and he won’t tell you about growing visibility or bigger opportunities. Instead, he goes back to a phone call that changed everything. He was cast in Operation Safed Sagar by filmmaker Oni Sen barely two days before he was expected to report to an Indian Air Force station—any actor would tell you that isn’t nearly enough time to prepare for a role. Looking back, though, the actor believes the timing couldn’t have worked out better. “Whatever happens, happens for a reason,” he says. Inspired by the Indian Air Force’s aerial operation during the 1999 Kargil War, the film features an ensemble cast including Siddharth, Jimmy Shergill, and Abhay Verma. For Ahuja, those 10 days spent around real fighter pilots was his best prep—not inside a rehearsal room, but standing on an airbase, watching aircrafts take off, observing officers whose lives inspired the series, and absorbing a world that most civilians never get to see. His voice noticeably lifts as he talks about the MiGs, the excitement cutting through an otherwise measured conversation. “We were the last civilians to sit inside those MiGs before they were decommissioned,” he says. “I got to touch them, feel them... they were actually part of the Kargil War.

Beyond the uniform

Before arriving on set, Ahuja had pages full of questions about the war. Meeting the officers quietly changed the questions he wanted to ask. “It’s not easy to talk about war,” he says. Instead, he watched. The firmness of an army handshake. The quiet discipline. The way they carried themselves. Those observations eventually found their way into his performance, but what stayed with him long after filming wrapped was something far less tangible: Perspective. Filming at over 16,000 feet in Himachal Pradesh’s Shinku LaPass, the cast battled low oxygen levels and steep climbs. It was physically exhausting, but the discomfort only reinforced his admiration for the people whose stories they were attempting to honour. “They climbed those mountains carrying weapons,” he says. “We were struggling to climb them empty-handed.” There’s one memory he returns to more than any other. A woman officer gifted every cast member a squadron cap before filming came to an end. As we speak, he’s wearing it. His smile arrives before the words do, “It stays very close to my heart.”

The ensemble effect

For someone who’s worked alongside everyone from the fresh-faced cast of The Archies to industry veterans, Ahuja has developed an approach that keeps him grounded. “I enter every set with a blank slate.” Some of those lessons are unexpectedly ordinary. Lunchbox conversations with Shergill often revolved around nothing more than what each of them had packed for the day. Ask him about Dia Mirza, however, and he pauses before answering. “When she talks to you, she’s just with you,” he says. “She’s completely present.” He compares that generosity to the quality people often associate with superstar Shah Rukh Khan—the rare ability to make the person in front of you feel like they’re the only one in the room. There’s a pattern in the stories Ahuja chooses to tell. They’re rarely about fame or the proximity to it. He remembers generosity before celebrity, presence before performance. Even while talking about some of the industry’s biggest names, what stays with him isn’t their stature, but their kindness.

Love, simplified

The conversation inevitably finds its way to love, and Ahuja’s outlook feels surprisingly uncomplicated. “I think we’re the ones who complicate love,” he says. “The emotion is still the same.” There are no sweeping declarations or cinematic ideals. His definition of love is refreshingly practical. Less grand gestures, more everyday choices. Dating apps and social media may have changed how people meet, but he believes old-school romance hasn’t disappeared. We’ve simply become better at overthinking it. His relationship advice arrives wrapped inside something as ordinary as an air conditioner. “If your partner doesn’t want the AC on, maybe you switch it off,” he laughs. “Sometimes you adjust. Sometimes you compromise. Both people have to.” He’s currently single, but there’s no cynicism in the way he talks about relationships. Just the quiet belief that love, much like life, works best when you stop trying to overcomplicate it.

The long game...

Towards the end of our conversation, I ask Ahuja what he’d tell the younger version of himself. He doesn’t hesitate. “Ho jaayega (it will happen).” The phrase has quietly become his daily mantra. Whenever doubt creeps in, whenever life refuses to move at the pace he’d like, those two words are enough to steady him. “I keep telling myself that, every single day.” Later, when I ask what he hopes people associate with his name five years from now, he pauses for noticeably longer. “As someone who never stopped trying.”

This article originally appeared in Cosmopolitan India's July-August 2026 print issue.

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