After Outrage, Netflix Will Add Disclaimers To Hijack Drama

Photo: @netflix_in

MUMBAI, (REUTERS) – Netflix said on September 3 it will add new disclaimers to an Indian series about a plane hijack after social media outrage and government anger over what they said was Muslim hijackers being shown as Hindus.

The series, called “IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack,” a fictionalized version of the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 from Kathmandu, was released on Netflix last week. It was immediately criticised for what social media users said was a wrong portrayal of the hijackers as Hindus with Hindu names when they were Muslims.

Netflix officials were summoned to India’s information and broadcasting ministry on September 3 and told it showed the hijackers in a positive light and misled audiences into thinking they were Hindu.

Amit Malviya, who heads BJP’s social media unit, said the series “legitimized the criminal intent” of the hijackers and misled people into thinking that Hindus hijacked the plane.

India said Pakistan and Pakistan-based militant groups for the December 1999 hijack, which was resolved after New Delhi freed three Islamist militants, including Masood Azhar, the head of one such group.

The series, which comes nearly 25 years after the incident, has actors Naseeruddin Shah, Vijay Varma and Pankaj Kapur, among others, and is based on the book “Flight into Fear”, written by the captain of the flight Devi Sharan and journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury.