Last Updated on 03/09/2024 by Arun jain
Director Anubhav Sinha’s web series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ was released on the OTT platform Netflix on 29 August. While the public liked this show a lot, a controversy also erupted over it. The controversy over the show reached such a point that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India summoned Netflix India’s content head Monica Shergill to Delhi and sought an answer from her.
On one hand, there is a controversy on social media regarding the show, while on the other hand, the real pilot of the plane that was hijacked and taken to Kandahar has pointed out two mistakes in the show.
Real pilots told me these mistakes
In 1999, when Indian Airlines flight IC 814 was hijacked from Kathmandu to Delhi, its pilot was Captain Devi Sharan. Vijay Verma has played his character in the Netflix show. Now Devi Sharan has told that two such things have been shown in the show which did not happen in real.
In the show, after the plane reaches Kandahar, when its toilets get badly choked, Vijay Verma, who plays the pilot, is seen going and clearing the plumbing line himself. And when he returns after doing this work, all the passengers welcome him with applause. But this thing did not happen in real life.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the real-life pilot of IC 814 said, ‘I did not repair the plumbing line myself. They (Taliban authorities) sent a worker. I took him down with me in the aircraft hold because he did not know where the lines were.’
There is another scene in the show in which senior actor Pankaj Kapoor, who plays the role of foreign minister, salutes the pilot coming out after the hijacking is over. Sharan said that such a scene did not happen in real life. He said, ‘(Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh) did not salute me. He definitely made a gesture, which was more like an appreciation of our efforts, rather than an actual salute.’
Controversy erupted on the show
In the show ‘IC 814’, the terrorists who hijacker the Indian Airlines flight are seen using code names instead of their real names during the entire incident. These names are – Burger, Chief, Shankar and Bhola. On social media, people objected to the Hindu names of the hijackers in ‘IC 814’ and alleged that this is an attempt to hide the real names of the terrorists.
Amid the controversy over the web series, on Monday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India summoned the content head of Netflix in Delhi. Official sources said that the ministry summoned the content head of Netflix India on Tuesday and sought clarification from him on the alleged controversial aspects of ‘IC 814’.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)