Operation 021: New trailer promises high-intensity thrills

E-Paper | March 08, 2026

The much anticipated Pakistani film Operation 021, scheduled to play on Eid-ul-Azha, released its second and final theatrical trailer on Tuesday.

Fast-paced and intense, the trailer leaves you wanting more. As always, Shaan demands attention when on screen and this trailer is no exception.

With surprisingly advanced production quality and lingering, unanswered questions, the trailer will have many pre-booking their tickets. After the resounding success of action-drama Waar, which broke records for the film industry last year, Pakistani audiences seem to have developed a taste for the action thriller genre and have similar expectation from 021.

Produced by Zeba Bakhtiar and her son Azaan Sami Khan, in collaboration with Australian director Summer Nicks, the action-spy thriller is a bilingual film featuring both a Pakistani and a foreign cast and crew.

Photo Courtesy - Operation 021 Official Facebook Page

Launched as a project of One Motion Pictures, the film has Shaan starring as the lead actor, with supporting roles played by Shamoon Abbasi, Aamina Sheikh and Ayub Khoso.

Filmed mostly in the remote rural areas of Pakistan, Operation 021 is scripted to address the political events in Pakistan and bring awareness to the Pakistani audience.

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Abrar Nazir

Sep 24, 2014 06:34pm

Simply spectacular!!!!!

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Khan-Haqiqi

Sep 24, 2014 06:38pm

Looks impressive congrats to Pakistani film makers

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Bakhtiar Mirza

Sep 24, 2014 06:39pm

Good news for Pakistanis who like to watch better cinema as well as Pakistan's movie making industry to have the confidence to generate better films (different from Bollywood). This will help create an independent identity instead of being casted as a lower grade Bollywood for ever. The comparison will always be there. Please start by identifying and highlighting your own crew first. Your article here forgot to mention the name of Pakistani director JAMI. Do remember that the movie is always the signature of the director first then to the start studded cast or good production team.

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Mehmood Ali

Sep 24, 2014 07:16pm

Yes, the director of the movie, plays an important role in its success. Good luck Jami and all his team!!!

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Sep 24, 2014 07:46pm

How come all actors in new movies have thick beards. Please shave off your beards, your movies will sell lot better. All old famous stars like Dilip, Ame Tab, Raj Kapoor and so on did not have beards and their movies were always box office hits. So please do that. Shave off your beards. Your movies will be more appealing to the cine goers.

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Rizwan

Sep 24, 2014 11:06pm

really happy to see this .. now we are changing

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Shamsher Singh Dhillion

Sep 24, 2014 11:10pm

@Bakhtiar Mirza Why are you always comparing yourself to Bollywood. Its not a competition! I hope nothing but the best for pakistani cinema! Hope the movie does well.

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Abbas

Sep 25, 2014 12:27am

Good job after a long struggle but u prevail. Hats off to you guys. Well done everyone.

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SubhsubhBol

Sep 25, 2014 12:43am

@IR but fawad khan has moustache and beard in khoobsurat and that movie is already a hit....how do you respond to that.....

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DMDiL

Sep 25, 2014 03:05am

OMG, I so wanna watch it!!! will it be releasing in USA?

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Nerry

Sep 25, 2014 05:20am

@IR you must be crazy

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bakhtiar mirza

Sep 25, 2014 07:10am

@Shamsher Singh Dhillion . It's the neighborhood dear. You are always compared to your near and dear ones. When pakistani dramas started to be aired on Zee zindagi chanel, everyone in India started comparing them to indian soaps. Have you imagined why bollywood.is written instead of Bombay film industry. Is this not a comparison to already present Hollywood. So there is comparison everywhere. We just should make sure it's a healthy one and keep your own identity.

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Zak

Sep 25, 2014 09:53am

Good job,Awaiting anxiously.

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FAROOQ

Sep 25, 2014 10:09am

This movie may well cross 10 crores at box office, but it will be sad to know Indian movie releasing parallel to it will make over 20 crores in just 1 week or so

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Harish

Sep 25, 2014 11:03am

@ Bakhtiar : Bollywood is producing more than 900 films per year besidethat regional films . If we sum up all films it would be more than 3000, So be reasonable bollywood can consume entire south asian film industry in one go.

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Beena Siddiqui

Sep 25, 2014 12:15pm

i dont think action thrillers like this can work for our audience. Plus storyline , which has been described... sounds quite boring ... so no matter how much advance the technology maybe used to shoot any particular scene. I am all for a good knitted story ,which can be resonated by majority of the audience. In this film , half the dialogues are in Darri and Pushtu..environment and situations are NOT relate-able for most of the audience.

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Farrukh

Sep 25, 2014 12:34pm

If the movie would be anything near the quality of the trailer my God we are in for big treat ! thumbs for the production team and best of luck for the release :)

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Arif T

Sep 25, 2014 01:12pm

If they want the message to reach the masses they should release a completely URDU version...the dialogues by foreigners can be in English for realism but no sense in Pakistanis talking to each other in English!!

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Zain Sheikh

Sep 25, 2014 02:07pm

I really hope that they add English subtitles to the part of the movie which have dialogues in Urdu. I also think that a total Urdu version shold be dubbed for the masses of Pakistan as we all are not fortunate enough to be bilingual.

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Ahmed

Sep 25, 2014 03:59pm

I appreciate efforts from our own cinema but we have to avoid redundancy. This film is on similar theme as waar, even the cast is same. Why cant we see some new faces in our upcoming movies. And God! Dont use that fake accent, it was really irritating with urdu subs when i watched war.

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Aamir

Sep 25, 2014 07:47pm

@Harish Sorry Harish it looks like you are getting carried away a bit. Bollywood on its own only produces abut 120 odd films every year. The rest of India produces about 700-800 films a year and not 3000. No offence at the end of the day its not quantity but quality that counts.

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Aamir

Sep 25, 2014 07:52pm

Operation 021 arguably the most awaited Pakistani film of 2014. One showbiz website which covered the press event wrote the following: "If you thought Waar was a big film, this one is huge, if you thought Waar was the smartest film of Pakistan, this one is genius, If you thought Waar was Hollywood, this one is Pakistani Cinema two-O-fourteen, if you thought this one is just another Waar, you, in simplest words, were wrong." Do I need to say anything else ?

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ABBAS Bilgrami

Sep 26, 2014 07:48pm

@Beena Siddiqui your personal view is just that personal. Good luck to Azaan, Jami and Zeba. Don't be put off by distractors and nay sayers. This is a landmark movie and will do as well in Pakistan as it will do well internationally. @IR if you can't grow a beard that's your problem get a hair transplant. This isn't Ataturks Turkey.

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