The character Alia Bhatt portrays in the 2024 Bollywood thriller Jigra is a sister who goes to great lengths to spare her brother from a death sentence in a foreign country. For Celina Jaitly, an actress and former Miss India, that fictional story has reflected a difficult reality.

Jaitly has been fighting for the release of her brother, Major (Retd) Vikrant Kumar Jaitly, who she says has been under “arbitrary detention” in the United Arab Emirates for the past 17 months. A retired Special Forces officer and former UN peacekeeper, Vikrant was picked up from a mall in September 2024. For nearly nine months, his whereabouts remained unknown, with no formal arrest on record and no access to legal representation, according to Jaitly.

“I got to know around September 29. The call came at around nine at night," Jaitly told PTI Videos. “I was living in Austria then. At first, I thought my brother was playing a prank. For an hour, I dismissed it as one of his stupid jokes.” Her fight for Vikrant unfolded amid personal turmoil. She was already trapped in what she described as a very bad marriage in Austria.”

Her fight for her brother unfolded alongside deep personal turmoil. At the time, Jaitly said she was trapped in what she described as a very abusive marriage in Austria.

“I was in a very abusive and bad marriage. But when you have children, you do everything to make that work. When you don't have parents, when you no longer have your assets, you do everything to keep your marriage going, specifically for your children", said Celna while describing her marriage.n,” she said.

For over 15 years, Jaitly said she had stepped away from her acting career, entrusting her partner with finances and property, only to later lose access to both her assets and her three sons.

Winner of the Femina Miss India title in 2001 and fourth runner-up at Miss Universe the same year, Jaitly had a successful film career before leaving the industry after marriage. Her filmography includes box-office hits such as No Entry, Apna Sapna Money Money, Golmaal Returns, Zinda and Thank You, along with the critically acclaimed short film Seasons Greeting.

Jaitly said that when news of her brother’s detention reached her, she was already at a breaking point. Standing up for him meant first escaping her own circumstances.

“I took that decision in the middle of battle, without dragging my children into it,” Jaitly said. “Knowing that if I don’t leave Austria, I won’t be able to stand up for my brother. At 1 o'clock in the night, with hardly any money, a ticket bought on a credit card, I left Austria and came to India.” What followed was another blow. Friends and relatives she turned to, she claimed, largely stayed away. “Nobody really came forward to support,” Jaitly said, adding that many treated the issue as a “taboo” and washed their hands of it.

What followed, she said, was another shock. Friends and relatives she turned to largely stayed away.

“Nobody really came forward to support,” Jaitly said, adding that many treated the issue as a “taboo” and washed their hands of it.

“In my darkest hour, I realised I had neither friends nor family in my immediate circle… Instead, complete strangers came and stood by me like a rock.”

Returning to India brought little relief. Jaitly said she had to seek a court injunction to enter her Mumbai home, alleging that her estranged husband was attempting to sell the property without her consent.

With diplomatic channels yielding little clarity on her brother’s detention, Jaitly approached the Delhi High Court and filed a writ of habeas corpus. It was only after the petition that authorities disclosed a prosecution number and confirmed her brother’s location.

“"We have only one prosecution number, and that too I received only after I put my writ petition before the Honourable Delhi High Court,” she said. “All I was told was a vague title of ‘National Security’’.”

There remains limited clarity on the grounds for Vikrant’s detention. Speaking about his work after retiring from the army, Jaitly said he had joined his wife’s company in the Middle East.

“After he retired from the army, he joined his wife in the middle east, she had formed a company called the Matiti Group which had various verticals from information technology to cyber security to risk management and HR services and Vikrant went on to join her firm just like any other veteran,” she said.

Through legal and grievance mechanisms, it was confirmed in mid-2025 that Vikrant had been shifted to the Al Wathba detention centre in Abu Dhabi.

The Delhi High Court has since passed an order allowing a UAE-based legal firm to represent him — a development Jaitly described as a long-awaited breakthrough. As she shared the update on social media, support poured in from the film industry, including actor Preity Zinta, who publicly backed her.

Calling herself a “fourth-generation armed forces daughter”, Jaitly said she has taken the matter to the highest levels of Indian leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“My brother is an Indian soldier,” she said. “He cannot be left in arbitrary detention.”

For Jaitly, the struggle is no longer cinematic, it is a relentless test of endurance, faith and a sister’s refusal to give up.