This particular controversy has also seen A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) being filed in the Delhi High Court by Surajit Singh Yadav, who is the chief of a Hindu Organization called Hindu Sena, intends to seek a ban in IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack series for using Hindu names for the hijackers. Besides this, it is seen on X that this incident has also #BoycottNetflix to be trending there . The real question now obviously comes to mind: Why did the makers use the names Bhola and Shankar in this process?
The Religious controversy
In one of the scenes of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, it is seen that the terrorists were using the names Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger and Chef, respectively, on the flight. The usage of the names Bhola and Shankar has directly drawn Netflix to see themselves being targeted by various criticism and backlash as people stated that by using Hindu names, the makers were whitewashing the entire terrorist incident.
Three years and another controversy regarding a show on a streaming service has once again hit India, causing uproar among people. This time, the main accuser is Netflix. Their web series, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, released on Netflix on 29 August 2024, is the main center of all these controversies. This show, which is based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 by Harkat Ul Mujahideen, has not only caused Netflix to see a boycott trend against them by the internet users but also they are seeing themselves in massive trouble on the legal way.
This also created uncertainty for Netflix regarding its future in India. Plenty of controversies have been associated with this show in the past couple of weeks, just after its release, from fact-distorting to distorting the role of an organization to humanizing the bad guys. However, one major controversy started this all out of them and created a long chain of events, with many controversies being summoned to the show.
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malavya has accused that it is some agenda which the makers have pulled out to whitewash the crime of Pakistani terrorists and force people to escalate the thought in future that the Hindus hijacked the IC 814.
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.
Result?
Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814.
Left’s…
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) September 1, 2024The Question of Authenticity
However, in this process, the fault was not the makers as a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs regarding this incident on 6 January 2000 has revealed that for the passengers these hijackers were known to be respectively as 1:Chef 2:Doctor 3: Burger 4:Bhola 5:Shankar as they were addressing each other to these names. So, in this aspect, the makers of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack did nothing wrong when using this name as they were following the trope of authentication.
However, the bridge was already burned, and to mitigate it, they had to put a disclaimer at the beginning to include the real and code names of the hijackers. These incidents can be seen as not the fault of the showrunners; however, a couple of other allegations have surfaced against the show, which indeed can be said to fall into their fault in general.
The humanizing of the hijackers
The show IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack shows that from the very first episodes, the hijackers were very keen and gentle and even showed empathy towards the injured crew and passengers on board. This is one of the main complaints that has come from the survivors about how they deliberately tried to show that the hijackers were very gentle and civil people. In this process to show this human side of hijackers IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack completely ignored various cruel sides of hijackers. In reality, the hijackers stabbed Satnam Singh, a German citizen, which on this show IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack didn’t show.Â
Like Doctor aka Shahid Akhtar Sayed, as described by Ipseeta Menon, one of the passengers of the flight, that the director and writers ignored his cruel radicalization speeches and also the lethal sides of the rest of the terrorists. She added that it was unfair for Netflix to show their human side. Besides that, it also aligned that the show deliberately missed out on how the rest of the hijackers threatened the passengers and even beat them at gunpoint or how hijackers threatened to kill the passengers on 30th December because the Government of India was doing nothing for their release.
If the survivors are angry about the depiction of the hijackers, then the various ex-government diplomats are furious about how IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack deliberately ignored the role of the then Government of Pakistan and their intelligence service ISI in this hijacking case.
Deliberately avoiding the role of Pakistan.
In IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, it is implied that the hijackers originated from Afghanistan, and the terrorist group Al Qaeda was involved in this case. In the show, it is also explicitly stated that the Pakistan Government has no role in this hijack incident. This has not been taken well by the ex-government officials., who at that time was the Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, stated that the ISI and the Government of Pakistan had a strong hand in this hijacking case, and Al Qaeda was not involved. As he pointed out, the terrorists whom they demanded the release were Pakistanis.
A.S Dulat, the then chief of RAW, also pointed out that ISI had a significant role in this context as per his statement that as per that time their intelligence report, a Pakistani journalist was in Kandahar at that time; he reported that it was evident that ISI was pulling the string of the whole operation. In this context, it can be seen that IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack deliberately, in the name of creative liberty, showed some historical context that was not true.
Besides, it was also alleged that not only did IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack avoid the role of Pakistan, but it also showed the BJP government of that time in a bad light. These accusations were enough that the ruling government, which is also BJP, finally took drastic steps against Netflix in this scenario.
The government of India finally reacted to the controversy
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India has summoned the content head of Netflix India, Monika Shergill, regarding all the controversies against IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack series. As per the source directly derived from the ministry officials, they are seeking a rationalization from Monika Shergill about the allegations that have surfaced in this series.
Also, when it was asked why the Government of India has taken this step, a source from GOI stated to the media that it is due to no one has a right to play with the sentiments of the people of this nation as well as the culture, civilization and all of them should be respected everyone should think twice before portraying someone in a wrong manner. Netflix might have never thought adapting an actual incident into a show could pull them into such trouble.
What was the actual incident of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack?
On 24 December 1999, an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 was hijacked by five members of Harkat Ul Mujahideen; the flight was scheduled to travel on a particular route that consisted of Kathmandu to Delhi. On that plane, there were 190 occupants, 179 of whom were passengers, and 11 crew members, including the captain of the plane, Devi Sharan. The aircraft was flown from Amritsar to Lahore to Dubai, and finally, on 25 December, the hijackers forced the plane to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The only demand from them to the Government of India was to release three terrorists in exchange for the lives of passengers; the terrorists were Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.
Finally, the crisis regarding the hostages ended on 31st December when the passengers and crew were released by the terrorists as the Government of India demanded their request and released three prisoners. The stance of the Indian Government was heavily critiqued at that time by the media and the opposition leaders regarding the incident.
The lessons that Netflix can learn from the controversy
One of the significant lessons Netflix can learn from the debacle of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is never to unquestioningly trust any director or filmmaker, thinking that their vision can always be accurate. Another thing Netflix can heavily use is taking points from this controversy of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is reviewing every sort of project before providing funding to them as in this process. However, they should be extra careful in this process to review any project based on actual socio-political incidents as a single sort of tampering with this kind of thing can spread a massive negative effect in India as the people of India are more sensitive compared to the outside.
FAQ
Who filed a PIL against the IC 814 show on Netflix?
This particular controversy has also seen A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) being filed in the Delhi High Court by Surajit Singh Yadav, who is the chief of a Hindu Organisation called Hindu Sena, intends to seek a ban in the series for using Hindu names for the hijackers.
What was the codename controversy of the IC 814 show?
In one of the scenes of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, it is seen that the terrorists were using the names Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger and Chef, respectively, on the flight. The usage of the names Bhola and Shankar has directly drawn Netflix to see themselves being targeted by various criticism and backlash as people stated that by using Hindu names, the makers were whitewashing the entire terrorist incident.
Did the terrorist use Bhola and Shankar codename?
However, in this process, the fault was not the makers as a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs regarding this incident on 6 January 2000 has revealed that for the passengers these hijackers were known to be respectively as 1:Chef 2:Doctor 3: Burger 4:Bhola 5:Shankar as they were addressing each other to these names.
What was the main controversy regarding hijackers on the IC 814 show on Netflix?
This is one of the main complaints that has come from the survivors about how they deliberately tried to show that the hijackers were very gentle and civil people. In this process to show this human side of hijackers IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack completely ignored various cruel sides of hijackers.
Does Pakistan have a hand behind the Kandahar Hijack?
This has not been taken well by the ex-government officials. Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, who at that time was the Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, stated that the ISI and the Government of Pakistan had a strong hand in this hijacking case, and Al Qaeda was not involved.
What was the Government of India’s response to the IC 814 show on Netflix?
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India has summoned the content head of Netflix India, Monika Shergill, regarding all the controversies against IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack series. As per the source directly derived from the ministry officials, they are seeking a rationalization from Monika Shergill about the allegations that have surfaced in this series.
How many passengers were there in the real incident of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack?
 On 24 December 1999, an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 was hijacked by five members of Harkat Ul Mujahideen; the flight was scheduled to travel on a particular route that consisted of Kathmandu to Delhi. On that plane, there were 190 occupants, 179 passengers, and 11 crew members, including the aircraft’s captain, Devi Sharan.
