IC 814 Series Row: Home Ministry Summons Netflix Content Head Amid Row Over Hindu Names For Hijackers

As per media reports and news agency ANI, government sources have revealed that the content head has been summoned. This development comes after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has called on the content head to appear before it on Tuesday.

What Is The Row About?

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, directed by Anubhav Sinha was released on Netflix India on August 29. The six-episode series is based on the real-life incident of December 1999 when an Indian Airlines flight 814 from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked.

The flight was forced to land at multiple locations before Kandahar, Afghanistan, which was under the rule of the Taliban.

In the series, the hijackers of IC 814 have been referred to as Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola, and Shankar. The naming of hijackers as Bhola and Shankar sparked outrage across social media as netizens criticised the use of Hindu names for possible terrorists.

Netizens trended "Boycott Netflix" on X as they slammed director Anubhav Sinha for the deliberate use of Hindu names for the hijackers, instead of using their real names.

As per a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs in 200, the real names of the hijackers were -

1. Ibrahim Athar, Bahawalpur

2. Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi

3. Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Defence Area, Karachi

4. Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Akhtar Colony, Karachi

5. Shakir, Sukkur City

However, during the hijack, the men used code names instead of their real names. As per director Anubhav Sinha, the names Shankar and Bhola were the name used by the hijackers in real life.

The series has been adapted for TV from the book "Flight into Fear: The Captain's Story," written by journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury and Devi Sharan, the captain of the IC 814 flight.