A decades-old clip from his cult ’90s series Full Tension has resurfaced online, with many jokingly asking whether Bhatti “predicted” the chaos engulfing IndiGo today
08 December, 2025 – Chandigarh : As India’s aviation sector grapples with severe disruption, an unlikely figure has re-entered public conversation: legendary satirist Jaspal Bhatti.
A decades-old clip from his cult ’90s series Full Tension has resurfaced online, with many jokingly asking whether Bhatti “predicted” the chaos engulfing IndiGo today.
The clip, now circulating widely on Instagram and X, shows Bhatti portraying a clueless airline official desperately pretending that everything is under control.
In the skit, flights are overbooked, counters are in disarray, pilots are missing and every delay is attributed to convenient “technical issues”.
Passengers sprint from one counter to another demanding answers — a scene originally meant as exaggerated satire but now uncannily mirroring India’s real airport chaos.
The viral post carrying the video reads: “When you realise Jaspal Bhatti had predicted the IndiGo 2025 chaos in ’89”.
Users flooded the comments, calling Bhatti a visionary and even dubbing him the “Simpson of India,” joking that his satire was more accurate than modern forecasting tools.
IndiGo’s crisis
India’s aviation system has been thrown off balance for nearly a week, with over 400 flights cancelled in a single day at the height of the crisis. Major airports including Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata have witnessed massive delays, long queues, rising fares and limited clarity on re-bookings.
The disruption stems from IndiGo’s struggle to implement new crew rostering norms that mandate longer rest hours for pilots. Although the rules were announced well in advance, the airline reportedly failed to adjust its staffing and scheduling systems, leading to acute pilot shortages.
By December 5, cancellations had crossed 1,000 flights, with disruptions spilling into the weekend. In an attempt to stabilise operations, the government stepped in to temporarily relax pilot duty-time limits.
IndiGo has said that it expects operations to normalise by December 10, with refunds underway and flight frequencies gradually improving.
The Tribune