The President of the Hindu Sena filed the petition at the Centre and Maharashtra government
Indian right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, Hindu Sena’s president Surjit Singh Yadav filed a PIL for banning the Netflix series IC814, accusing the series of distorting historical facts and hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community. Yadav has pleaded to the to the Centre and Maharashtra government to cancel the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) certificate and ban the public viewing of the series.
PIL on Netflix series IC814: What is the accusation on the series?
The petition says, “The distortion of crucial facts about the real identities of the hijackers not only misrepresents historical events but also perpetuates harmful stereotypes and misinformation, warranting interference of this court to prevent further public misunderstanding and potential harm,”
The content head of the OTT platform Netflix India has been summoned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India, to address the issue and provide an explanation on the allegations placed.
IC 814: Kandahar Hijack: About the Series
IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack, is an Anubhav Sinha-directed Indian Hindi-language crime thriller drama television mini-series about the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 in 1999. This Netflix original premiered globally on 29 August 2024. The series features an ensemble cast of Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma, Patralekha, Rajiv Thakur, Amrita Puri, Dia Mirza, and Arvind Swamy. The series is an adaptation of the novel named, Flight Into Fear The Captain’s Story written by Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury.
Netflix series IC814: Why the uproar?
The IC 814: Kandahar Hijack series portrays the 1999 hijack of Indian Airlines Flight 814. The plane was hijacked on 24 December 1999 by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based Islamist jihadist group with links to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. The hijack was perpetrated to secure the release of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen leaders imprisoned in India. The series changed the Pakistani Islamic terrorists’ real names to code names and Hindu names. The identities of the five hijackers were determined to be Ibrahim Akhtar, Shahid Akhtar Sayeed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Mistry, and Shakir, all hailing from different regions of Pakistan. However, the series used code names like Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger, and Chief, and this has led to accusations that the series downplays the identities of the terrorists, which some viewers argue dilutes the historical context and impact of the real events. The criticism is simple, even if these code names were the names that the terrorists used in real life to address each other, when presenting a series on an international platform, it is important to also show their real names and present the history as it was.
IC 814: Kandahar Hijack Review: Reception towards the series
The series got an average critical response with most of its ratings ranging around 3.5 out of 5. However, it has also received criticism from a section of journalists who covered the hijacking on grounds of the series being misleading. The Executive Editor of News24, Manak Gupta, criticized the plot asking “why the full truth of Pakistan-ISI was not told… Was the theory of Pakistan’s non-state actors given importance intentionally or unintentionally?”. Veteran Journalist, Vir Sanghvi also criticized the filmmakers of IC 814: Kandahar Hijack suggesting that the series offers a whitewashed portrayal of an ISI operation while failing to accurately represent the threat posed by the hijackers.
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