Based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, director Anubhav Sinha‘s crime thriller drama miniseries ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ was widely praised, but it also caused controversy when some viewers claimed the show intentionally misrepresented the religious identities of the five terrorists involved in the incident.
Even BJP leader Amit Malviya criticized the series on X (formerly Twitter), saying the creators had made sure viewers would “think Hindus hijacked IC-814” by giving the hijackers “non-Muslim” names.According to a Home Ministry statement dated January 6, 2000, which is accessible on the Ministry of External Affairs website, the terrorists from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group really utilized the code names that were used in the series.
The biggest part of Pakistan’s intelligence community, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has been the subject of controversy and accusations that it has been whitewashed. Anubhav Sinha himself addressed these issues recently. In an interview with India Today, he was asked whether the show was giving the spy agency a clean chit in a scene where Osama bin Laden, the previous head of Al-Qaeda, throws a party for the hijackers without any ISI agents in attendance.
The interviewer framed this issue by pointing out that ISI’s participation has been emphasized again and time again by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. “That really happened,” Sinha said in response, demonstrating the accuracy of the events portrayed in the show. In addition, he questioned why the interviewer couldn’t acknowledge the substantial research that went into making the show.
The filmmaker explained, “A very serious amount of research has gone into it. Also, at the end of the day, it’s a dramatic narration of an event. I am not writing history. If somebody has to refer to the Kandahar hijack, you won’t refer to this series, but other documents and source materials instead. You don’t go after films for historical references. Films get away with just a disclaimer saying ‘all the characters are fictional’. There are a lot of things in the show that go around the facts because there are no facts available. So, you dramatise it to put it together.”
He went on to say that the way the show depicts ISI’s role in Kathmandu is accurate and that it doesn’t try to give the agency any clean chit. “The series is not trying to be history. I had the right to use the captain’s name, but I didn’t. I changed even his name. It’s a fresh take on what happened. When a conspiracy of this kind is executed, there are a lot of things that have clear answers; there would only be versions,” Sinha added.
Even BJP leader Amit Malviya criticized the series on X (formerly Twitter), saying the creators had made sure viewers would “think Hindus hijacked IC-814” by giving the hijackers “non-Muslim” names.According to a Home Ministry statement dated January 6, 2000, which is accessible on the Ministry of External Affairs website, the terrorists from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group really utilized the code names that were used in the series.
The biggest part of Pakistan’s intelligence community, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has been the subject of controversy and accusations that it has been whitewashed. Anubhav Sinha himself addressed these issues recently. In an interview with India Today, he was asked whether the show was giving the spy agency a clean chit in a scene where Osama bin Laden, the previous head of Al-Qaeda, throws a party for the hijackers without any ISI agents in attendance.
The interviewer framed this issue by pointing out that ISI’s participation has been emphasized again and time again by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. “That really happened,” Sinha said in response, demonstrating the accuracy of the events portrayed in the show. In addition, he questioned why the interviewer couldn’t acknowledge the substantial research that went into making the show.
The filmmaker explained, “A very serious amount of research has gone into it. Also, at the end of the day, it’s a dramatic narration of an event. I am not writing history. If somebody has to refer to the Kandahar hijack, you won’t refer to this series, but other documents and source materials instead. You don’t go after films for historical references. Films get away with just a disclaimer saying ‘all the characters are fictional’. There are a lot of things in the show that go around the facts because there are no facts available. So, you dramatise it to put it together.”
He went on to say that the way the show depicts ISI’s role in Kathmandu is accurate and that it doesn’t try to give the agency any clean chit. “The series is not trying to be history. I had the right to use the captain’s name, but I didn’t. I changed even his name. It’s a fresh take on what happened. When a conspiracy of this kind is executed, there are a lot of things that have clear answers; there would only be versions,” Sinha added.