Presenting Neerja MOVIE Exclusive Video - Sonam Kapoor shares her experience of working in this film.

The movie is based on the biography of Neerja Bhanot AC who was a flight attendant for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, India, who was murdered while saving passengers from terrorists on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September 1986. She was given biggest bravery award by 3 countries India, USA & Pakistan. The movie is releasesing in theaters on 19th February 2016.
The film is based on the life of Neerja Bhanot who was shot dead by terrorists who hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi on 5 September 1986.

Neerja Bhanot (Hindi: नीरजा भनोट) AC (7 September 1963 – 5 September 1986[1]) was a flight attendant for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, India, who was murdered while saving passengers from terrorists on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September 1986. Posthumously, she became the youngest recipient of India's highest peacetime military award for bravery, the Ashok Chakra

Neerja Bhanot was born in Chandigarh, India, the daughter of Rama Bhanot and Harish Bhanot, a Mumbai-based journalist.

Bhanot had an arranged marriage in March 1985 and joined her husband in the Gulf. However, the marriage turned sour following dowry pressure and she returned to her parents' home in Mumbai within two months. She then applied for a flight attendant job with Pan Am, and upon selection, went to Miami for training as a flight attendant but returned as purser.
Bhanot was the senior flight purser on the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73, which was hijacked by four armed men. As the plane was on the tarmac, the three-member American cockpit crew of pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer evacuated the aircraft per their training so that the aircraft could not be forcibly flown. Bhanot, being the senior-most cabin crew member on board, took charge.

The hijackers were part of the terrorist Abu Nidal Organization and were backed by Libya. The terrorists then instructed Bhanot to collect the passports of all the passengers so that they could identify the Americans. Bhanot and the other attendants under her charge hid the passports of the 41 Americans on board – some under a seat and the rest down a rubbish chute.

After 17 hours, the hijackers opened fire and set off explosives. Bhanot opened the emergency door and helped a number of passengers escape. She could have been the first to jump out when she opened the door but she decided not to and was shot while shielding three children from a hail of bullets. One of the children, then aged 7, is now a captain for a major airline and has stated that Neerja Bhanot has been his inspiration and he owes every day of his life to her. Bhanot was recognized internationally as "the heroine of the hijack" and is the youngest recipient of the Ashok Chakra Award, India's most prestigious gallantry award for bravery during peace time.
The hijackers, said to be from the Abu Nidal Organisation, were captured by Pakistan, tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 1988. Their sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

In 2001, Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, one of the hijackers who shot the passengers, was captured by the FBI in Bangkok after being released by Pakistan. He is currently serving a 160-year prison term in Colorado. Four others were freed from Pakistan's Adyala Jail in January 2008. The FBI announced a $5 million bounty on their heads. In January 2010, Pakistani intelligence officials announced that a drone attack in the North Waziristan tribal region had killed one of the released hijackers, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim. His death was never confirmed and he remains on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists and Rewards for Justice lists
Bhanot is survived by two brothers, Akhil and Aneesh. Her father, Harish Bhanot, worked as a journalist with The Hindustan Times for over 30 years and died on 1 January 2008 in Chandigarh at the age of 86