Explained | The controversy surrounding Anubhav Sinha's 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack' Netflix series

The series is based on the 1999 hijack of an Indian Airlines aircraft by five terrorists, 40 minutes after it took off from Kathmandu. It has been available on Netflix since August 29.

Anubhav Sinha's latest series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is facing heat online over names of the terrorists in the show.

A section of social media users called for the boycott of the six-episode series for allegedly hiding the real identities of the terrorists involved in the 1999 hijacking.

The series is based on the hijack of an Indian Airlines aircraft by five terrorists on December 24, 1999, 40 minutes after it took off from Kathmandu. It has been available on Netflix since August 29.

What is the controversy?

The row emerged because the terrorists used Hindu identities to carry out the hijacking, which the show apparently focuses more on.

The controversy snowballed to an extent where Netflix India's content head has been summoned by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Using hashtags #BoycottNetflix, #BoycottBollywood and #IC814, many X users shared posts claiming the makers changed the names of the hijackers to 'Shankar' and 'Bhola' to allegedly protect the terrorists -- Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, and Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim.

Famous casting director Mukesh Chhabra has tried to explain the intention in a post on X.

Chhabra said the terrorists used "nicknames or fake names" to address each other.

"I am reading so many tweets about the names of the hijackers. We did the proper research. They used to call each other by those names—nicknames or fake names, whatever you want to call them." "And thank you, everyone, for loving the ensemble cast. A big thank you to my team, and especially to Anubhav Sinha for trusting us and giving me the freedom to explore. #IC814 #Netflix," he wrote on X.

What politicians are saying

Several politicians have already taken sides in the matter, with BJP's Amit Malviya saying "The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists, who acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, legitimised their criminal intent, by furthering their non-Muslim names."

On X, he continued "Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814. Left’s agenda to whitewash the crimes of Pakistani terrorists, all Muslims, served. This is the power of cinema, which the Communists have been using aggressively, since the 70s. Perhaps even earlier. This will not just weaken / put in question India’s security apparatus in the long run, but also shift the blame away from the religious cohort, that is responsible for all the bloodshed."

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said on Monday that the outrage by certain sections of India's right-wing because it is a reminder of the BJP government's failure to control the situation then.

"The RW outrage over a series on IC 814, which I haven’t seen nor endorse, is not as much for the series as it is a reminder of BJP government’s massive failure then, it reminds the nation how the intelligence and government agencies were caught off guard. Much like the Kargil war too," Chaturvedi said in a post on X.

Chaturvedi then went on to highlight how the events unfolded:

"Never forget:

- they permitted IC-814 to take off from Amritsar and once they left the Indian airspace it was anyway a tough situation for india to negotiate

- the flight ended up landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan then under Taliban control and Pakistan ISI managed."

She went on to state that the terrorists released, namely—Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh, Mushtaq Zargar—went on to create the Jaish-e-Muhammad, which was behind the 2001 Parliament attack.

"And why leave how the same JeM and ISI continued to launch deadly terror attacks in India including in PM Modi's tenure. Yes IC 814 is a report card of BJP’s hollow claim of it keeping nation first. It only keeps its politics first," the Rajya Sabha member added.

Chaturvedi went on to list the terror attacks the JeM was involved in, namely, the 2001 J&K legislative assembly attack, the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack, the 2016 attack on the Indian Mission in Mazar-i-Sharif, the 2016 Uri attack, and the 2019 Pulwama attack.

With PTI, DH Web Desk inputs