Monika Shergill, head of Netflix India, is meeting with the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today at Shastri Bhawan. The meeting is being held to address concerns over Netflix’s web series based on the hijacking of IC-814.
Government sources stated, “Nobody has the right to play with the sentiments of the people of this nation. India’s culture and civilization should always be respected. You should think before portraying something in a wrong manner. The government is taking it very seriously.” This statement highlights why Netflix was summoned by the ministry.
Sources also mentioned that Netflix’s team came prepared with research documents and footage that were used for the series. Netflix aims to demonstrate that the series, “IC-814- The Kandahar Hijack,” is based on publicly available resources, including books and official statements.
The series has sparked controversy on social media due to its depiction of the hijackers. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Delhi High Court by Surjit Singh Yadav, Chief of Hindu Sena, requesting a ban on the series. The PIL alleges that the series distorts the real identities of the terrorists by assigning them Hindu names, such as “Bhola” and “Shankar,” which are associated with Lord Shiva. These names were given to the actual hijackers, Ibrahim Akhtar, Shahid Akhtar Sayeed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Mistry, and Shakir.
BJP leader Amit Malviya criticized the series, accusing filmmaker Anubhav Sinha of legitimizing the hijackers’ actions by giving them non-Muslim names. Malviya stated, “The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists, who acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimized their criminal intent by furthering their non-Muslim names. Result? Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814.”
Another BJP leader, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, expressed satisfaction that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had taken note of the issue. “I vividly remember IC-814. I was very aware of that incident and very involved in following it. Every man and woman in India and indeed in South Asia knows that the hijack of IC-814 from Kathmandu was committed by Pakistan’s ISI-backed terrorists. Now, nobody thinks that there were some people from India who did the hijacking. So how the people have Hindu names in that movie, I don’t know. But I’m very happy that the I&B Ministry and the GoI have taken cognizance of this and have summoned Netflix,” Chandrasekhar said.
The hijack drama, created by Anubhav Sinha and Trishant Shrivastava, features actors Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma, Arvind Swamy, Patralekhaa, and Dia Mirza. The six-episode series is based on the events of December 24, 1999, when Indian Airlines flight IC-814, en route from Kathmandu to Delhi, was hijacked shortly after taking off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal and entering Indian airspace.