The government has summoned the content head of Netflix India over Anubhav Sinha's recent thriller series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, which has triggered a row over depiction of hijackers. Official sources said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has summoned the content head on Tuesday, seeking an explanation on the allegedly contentious aspects of the series. The depiction of hijackers of the 1999 Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Delhi has kicked off a row with a section of viewers on social media objecting to the change in their identities.

What's the brouhaha about?

Back in December 1999, an Indian Airlines flight travelling from Kathmandu, Nepal to New Delhi, India was hijacked by a group of five armed men. They forced the pilot to fly the aircraft to multiple locations, including Amritsar, Lahore, and eventually Kandahar, Afghanistan, then ruled by the Taliban. After negotiations with the hijackers, the Indian government released three terrorists imprisoned in India in exchange of the 179 passengers' safety.

After the show dropped on Netflix India, last Thursday, a section of the internet has objected to concealing the identities of the five Muslim hijackers under the alias of Burger, Doctor, Chief, Bhola, and Shankar. "Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimised their criminal intent by furthering their non-Muslim names," Amit Malviya posted on X. “Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814. This will not just weaken / put in question India's security apparatus in the long run, but also shift the blame away from the religious cohort, that is responsible for all the bloodshed," he added.

Many other X users followed suit, so much so that the I&B Ministry has now summoned the Netflix India content head for a clarification.

Here's the truth

While the real identities of the five hijackers haven't been disclosed in IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, their code names match with that of the Home Ministry's statement from 1999. A corresponding document on the official website of the Ministry of External Affairs states:

"The hijackers named by these operatives are:

Ibrahim Athar, Bahawalpur

Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi

Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Defence Area, Karachi

Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Akhtar Colony, Karachi

Shakir, Sukkur city

To the passengers of the hijacked place these hijackers came to be known respectively as (1) Chief, (2) Doctor, (3) Burger, (4) Bhola and (5) Shankar, the names by which the hijackers invariably addressed one another."

In the show, Burger and Doctor, who take the charge of hijacking, are played by actors Rajiv Thakur and Harry Parmar respectively. The show also stars Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Patralekhaa, Aravind Swamy, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Dia Mirza, and Amrita Puri among others. It's co-produced by Matchbox Shots and Anubhav's Benaras Media Works. It's co-written by Adrian Levy (story), Anubhav, and Trishant Srivastava.