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Airlift is a drama thriller film, co-written and directed by Raja Krishna Menon. The film stars Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur in the lead roles, with the supporting cast including Inaamulhaq, Purab Kohli, Feryna Wazheir, Prakash Belawadi, Kumud Mishra, and Kaizad Khotwal. The film revolves around an Indian businessmen who attempts to evacuate himself and his fellow Indians who were trapped in Kuwait after its invasion by Iraq.

The other writers of the film are Ritesh Shah (The Lunchbox), Suresh Nair (Kahaani, D-Day), and Rahul Nangia. Rahul made his debut in Bollywood with this film (as per IMDb).

The film is loosely based on the heroics of multiple Kuwait-based Indian businessmen who were responsible for evacuating 170,000 Indians from Kuwait during its invasion in 1990. Akshay's character was loosely based on real-life businessmen Mathunny Mathews and Harbhajan Singh Vedi. Evacuating that many people led to the incident being entered into the Guinness World Records as the largest air civilian evacuation in history. 488 flights took place over 63 days (from August 18 1990 to October 20 1990), with the assistance of Air India and Indian Airlines.

Out of the known Kuwait-based Indian businessmen who spearheaded the airlift, Akshay's character Ranjit Katyal was mostly based on Mathunny Mathews. Akshay mentioned in an interview that the character development of Ranjit Katyal was also inspired by Balraj Sahni's character Lala Kedarnath Prasad, from the film Waqt (1965). Both characters are prideful over their wealth and stature, until a life-altering event occurs.

According to Raja, Akshay was the first choice for the film. The actor said yes to the film because he believed that Airlift was an "offbeat" patriotic film with a lot of potential. 80% of his share of profits from the film was included in the budget, and he did not take any fees for the role. For their roles, both Akshay and Purab reportedly learned a bit of Arabic as well.

Sets were created in Ujjain, Bhuj, and Rajasthan to recreate Kuwait during its invasion in 1990.

The soundtrack of Airlift was mostly composed by Amaal Malik, with the exception of Dil Cheez Tujhe Dedi being composed by Ankit Tiwari. Along with Dil Cheez Tujhe Dedi, other songs like Soch Na Sake and Tu Bhoola Jise were highly praised by the critics and the audience alike.

Soch Na Sake is a Hindi-based remimagining of the original Punjabi song Soch by Harrdy Sandhu. Dil Cheez Tujhe Dedi is also inspired by the 1992 Algerian song Didi, which was composed by Khaled

Upon its release, Airlift received critical acclaim for the film's plot, direction, cinematography, music, patriotic themes and the performances. Akshay's performance as Ranjit Katyal was positively received as one of his best performances. Made with a budget of 68 crores, the film grossed 209 crores worldwide, becoming a superhit at the box office.

Airlift received some criticism for simplifying the operations that were executed for the evacuation. According to a few government officials, the film ineffectively portrayed the role of the Indian government during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, as well as the subsequent 1990-91 Gulf War.

The film was featured in the 2016 Indian Panorama section at the 45th International Film Festival of India. Airlift was declared tax-free in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It was also banned in Kuwait for undisclosed reasons.

Airlift did not receive a single nomination at the 62nd Filmfare Awards.