Archive · 13 Aug 2026
Operation Safed Sagar: Why Nawaz Sharif Wanted Dev Anand on Lahore Bus
A new Netflix show called 'Operation Safed Sagar' tells the story of a war between India and Pakistan in 1999.
The show begins before the war, with India's Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, taking a special bus to the Pakistani city of Lahore to make peace.
A famous movie star named Dev Anand came along because Pakistan's leader, Nawaz Sharif, personally asked for him.
Dev Anand had studied in Lahore long ago, so the trip felt like coming home for him.
At the border, he hugged Nawaz Sharif, joined the two leaders' hands, and said he had come to bring the two countries together.
Sharif loved Dev Anand so much that his family's movie CD wore out from replaying one song again and again.
The two stayed friends, meeting in London and walking in Hyde Park for many years.
Sadly, the peace trip did not last, and the two countries fought the Kargil War months later.
Dev Anand died in 2011, and the meeting with Sharif he had promised never happened.
Netflix's 'Operation Safed Sagar' follows the 1999 Kargil War from the Indian Air Force's perspective and opens on PM Vajpayee's historic Lahore bus trip.
According to journalist Punya Prasun Bajpai's 2024 Outlook article, Nawaz Sharif asked Vajpayee, 'If possible, bring Dev Anand along with you.'
Dev Anand, educated at Government College Lahore, was told only a day before departure to keep his passport ready and travel from Delhi to Lahore.
Sharif's wife said the family's CID CD wore out because Sharif repeatedly replayed the song 'Leke Pehla Pehla Pyaar' in slow motion, admiring Dev Anand's turn.
Dev Anand and Nawaz Sharif stayed close after 1999, meeting several times in London and walking in Hyde Park until Dev Anand's death in 2011 at age 88.
Months after the peace visit, India and Pakistan fought the Kargil War, and Sharif later recalled Dev Anand's final promise to return to Pakistan, a meeting that never happened.
- Who
- Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pakistan's then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and veteran actor Dev Anand.
- What
- Nawaz Sharif requested that Dev Anand accompany Vajpayee on his 1999 Delhi-to-Lahore bus peace visit, a story spotlighted by Netflix's Kargil War series 'Operation Safed Sagar'.
- When
- In 1999, months before the Kargil War; the Netflix series released recently.
- Where
- The bus traveled from Delhi to Lahore, Pakistan, crossing the Wagah border; the two later met in London and walked in Hyde Park.
- Why
- Sharif was a devoted lifelong admirer of Dev Anand, who was born near Lahore and educated at Government College there.
Peace diplomacy remembered warmly
Peace effort undercut by Kargil War
Legacy of the Lahore bus diplomacy
Peace diplomacy remembered warmly
The visit was a historic peace mission in which Dev Anand, at Sharif's insistence, joined the two leaders' hands at Wagah as a symbol of bringing the countries together, and the two sides built a warm personal friendship for years afterward.
Peace effort undercut by Kargil War
The optimism of the Lahore bus diplomacy did not last: within months India and Pakistan were fighting the Kargil War, the very conflict at the center of 'Operation Safed Sagar,' and Sharif later went into exile after being removed from power.
- Netflix series
- Operation Safed Sagar
- Series subject
- 1999 Kargil War from the Indian Air Force's perspective
- Historic event
- PM Vajpayee's Delhi-to-Lahore bus visit, 1999
- Sharif's request
- "If possible, bring Dev Anand along with you"
- Key source
- Journalist Punya Prasun Bajpai, Outlook, 2024
- Known-for films
- Guide, Jewel Thief, CID, Taxi Driver, Johny Mera Naam
- Dev Anand's roots
- Born near Lahore; educated at Government College, Lahore
- Dev Anand's death
- 2011, at age 88
