Modi govt summons Netflix India content head amid The Kandahar Hijack row

The union ministry of information and broadcasting has reportedly summoned Netflix India’s content head Monika Shergill amid accusations that a new Netflix series had distorted facts about the 1999 Indian Airlines hijack as part of an agenda to “whitewash” the crimes of Muslim terrorists.

This comes a day after BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya accused IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack of deliberately avoiding the real names of the hijackers to mislead viewers. Several others accused the series of obscuring the Muslim identity of the hijackers. #BoycottBollywood and #BoycottNetflix trended on X.

Directed by Anubhav Sinha, the series features aliases of the five hijackers, such as “chief”, “doctor”, “burger”, “Bhola”, and “Shankar”. These were mentioned in media reports and the book the series is based on – Flight into Fear: The Captain’s Story by Srinjoy Chowdhury and the flight captain Devi Sharan.

Neelesh Misra, the author of another book on the IC-814 hijacking, defended the use of these names, stating, “Shankar, Bhola, Burger, Doctor, and the Chief were the aliases used by the hijackers, including the brother of the then-jailed Masood Azhar. These were the names used during the hijacking.”

Former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “It’s really amusing to see the people who took movies like Kashmir Files as the gospel truth having a melt down at the way the events of IC814 are depicted in the Netflix show. Now suddenly they want accuracy & nuance packaged in the script.” 

The series, which stars Dia Mirza, Vijay Varma, Pankaj Kapoor, and Naseeruddin Shah, premiered on August 29, 2024.