Amid calls from some social media users to boycott the series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack for allegedly hiding the true identities of the terrorists involved in the 1999 incident, casting director Mukesh Chhabra clarified on Sunday that the terrorists used nicknames, and thorough research was done for the show. The series, directed by Anubhav Sinha, focuses on the 1999 hijacking of an Indian plane, which began streaming on Netflix on August 29. Trolls on social media, using hashtags like #BoycottNetflix and #BoycottBollywood, claimed that the names of the hijackers were changed to “Shankar” and “Bhola” to allegedly protect their identities.
“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,” Mukesh wrote on X. “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 added.
Earlier, writer Neelesh Misra, who wrote the book that inspired Netflix’s IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, reacted to the backlash over the ‘changed’ names of the terrorists in the series. “All the hijackers assumed false names. That is how they referred to each other and how the passengers referred to them throughout the hijacking — Regards, the author of the first book on the IC-814 hijacking,” he shared on X.
The Kandahar flight hijack refers to a dramatic incident that took place in December 1999, when Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked by a group of militants. The aircraft, en route from Kathmandu to Delhi, was diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan after being taken over by the hijackers. The standoff lasted for several days, during which intense negotiations and complex diplomatic maneuvers unfolded.
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