Pippa team says they ‘resurrected’ real PT-76 tank for film; Ishaan Khatter reveals it blew up while he was in 100-ft deep lake

The film gets its title from the amphibious war tank PT-76, popularly known as ‘Pippa’, which is like an empty tin of ghee that floats on water. In an interview with Indianexpress.com, Raja Krishna Menon said the team was fortunate to have found one original PT-76 tank from the war.

Though not in a functional state, the filmmaker said, thanks to the Indian Army, they got it “up and running” in about eight months. “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 certain way, but it was largely that tank.”

Apart from the OG battle tank, the Pippa team spent six-seven months mounting similar tanks for the shoot. “We got production design to build a bunch of tanks, which could also float! We took about six-seven months to build the tanks, then water test them, land test them, there is VFX involved as well partially. The entire team did great a job on pulling this off.”

Ishaan, who plays Captain Mehta of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron, said it was an experience of a lifetime to float across water on a live moving tank– which malfunctioned on the final day it was required.

“I will tell you an interesting story about PT-76. Like Raja said about how we resurrected it, but 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!

“When the thing blew up, we were like, ‘Oh ok, that’s a problem.’ We had to turnaround, come back on land. Our driver was Mondala sahab, a soldier in his 60s, he was recruited in 1972, and he drove the real tank for us in the film. He came out and said, ‘Sir, iska toh hogaya.’ It has breathed its last in the last shot, and now it has gone. It only came alive to give us the movie!” he added.

Produced by Ronnie Screwvala under the banner of RSVP and Siddharth Roy Kapur’s Roy Kapur Films, Pippa also stars Mrunal Thakur, Priyanshu Painyuli and Soni Razdan in pivotal roles. The film is set to release on Prime Video on November 10.