Naseeruddin Shah REVEALS If There Was Competitiveness on Sets of IC 814: 'I Didn't Expect That...'

Netflix’s new series, titled IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack boasts of some stellar actors in its star cast. From Naseeruddin Shah to Pankaj Kapur, and Manoj Pahwa to Arvind Swami, some of the biggest names in the acting fraternity are seen under one roof. With such stallwarts on the sets, was there a sense of competitiveness among them? Naseeruddin said not at all. The actor, in a sit down with his fellow actors from the show, opened up about the energy on the sets and said there was no competition between the actors.

“I don’t normally bother about these things. For me, the joy is working with actors who you enjoy being with and who you trust. And I think that was the greatest bond among all of us. In that, there was absolutely no competitiveness which is to me is the bane of acting. There was absolutely none in this and I didn’t expect that there would be any, knowing all the people who were in it," Naseeruddin said.

Anubhav Sinha, the director of the series, chipped in to add, “That was probably the only way it could have happened." Watch the complete conversation below:

For the unversed, the series revolves around the 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.

Speaking at a press gathering last month, Anubhav said he could easily convince Naseeruddin to join the show. However, it was a task to convince Pankaj Kapur. “Pankaj Kapur was the most difficult to cast," the director said. “He doesn’t say yes easily. He loves me dearly, and I’ve been working with him since 2004."

“He said, ‘I won’t do the series. Why should I?’ I thought sending him his scenes might change his mind. But he insisted, ‘No, I want to read the whole script.’ I told him, ‘Pankaj bhai, it’s 200 pages, 6 episodes…’ He replied, ‘I will read the 200 pages.’ So I said, okay, read," the filmmaker added with a smile.