It is hard to find a more patriotic Indian than Anubhav Sinha and he has made the story of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack with a lot of thought, says veteran director Sudhir Mishra, dismissing the controversy surrounding the series.
Sinha's show, which dramatises the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814, has triggered a row after a section of viewers objected to the Hindu code names of the terrorists, contending that distortion of their real identities amounted to misrepresentation of historical events.
Netflix updated the opening disclaimer of the show to include both real and code names of the hijackers after the controversy.
Mishra, the director of several critically-acclaimed movies such as "Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin", "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" and a close friend of Sinha, said he found the show to be very good.
"He has made the series quite thoughtfully. It is up to you to react or not react. But I found it to be very good... Now if you say, Anubhav Sinha is not patriotic, then it is very wrong because I know him very well," the filmmaker told PTI.
"You will not find a more patriotic Indian than Anubhav Sinha... He is very patriotic, he grew up in Benaras and studied in Aligarh. Ram Ram kehte bada hua hai. It would be wrong to say bad things about him," he added.
The show, which features a stellar cast of Vijay Varma, Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah, Arvind Swamy, Dia Mirza and Patralekhaa, was also criticised by some social media users for its humane projection of the terrorists.
Mishra, however, believes Sinha was only following the "dharma (duty) of storytelling".
"Otherwise, how will anyone play it? If you show a character as a villain and he just roars and shouts, then you will not identify him in real life. A villain looks like a human but there is evil beneath the skin. One should learn to identify that," the director said.
Sinha has often spoken about his friendship with Mishra and other contemporary directors in Hindi cinema. Mishra also shares the same fondness for each of them.
"I love them. Anurag (Kashyap) dedicated 'Kennedy' to me. Anubhav and I talk with each other every morning.
"Vishal (Bhardwaj) is a multi-talented filmmaker. I feel jealous of him. Then there is Hansal (Mehta) and Subhash Kapoor, Abhishek Choubey, Imtiaz Ali... There is a lot of talent in this city at the moment. There is also Avinash Arun, who made this great film called 'Three of Us'," Mishra said.
The filmmaker, who is returning with the second installment of SonyLIV series "Tanaav", said he is inspired by these directors and there is no one-upmanship among them.
"I remember, when Anurag made 'DevD', he was my assistant first, and he told me during the making of the film that I was his inspiration. I believe that we should all stand together. This jealousy and fights, 'meri kameez tumhari kameez se zyaada safed hai', we should just forget about this. People will judge later who is better," the filmmaker said.
"I believe if Anurag succeeds, then I will also succeed. Similarly, if Anubhav succeeds, then I will succeed. If you look at us as a group of filmmakers, who make certain kinds of films, then the environment will remain positive and we will make better movies," he added.
The second season of "Tanaav" brings back the original cast of Manav Vij, Arbaaz Khan, Rajat Kapoor and Satyadeep Mishra. The series, backed by Applause Entertainment, started streaming on SonyLIV from Friday. An adaptation of the popular Israeli show "Fauda", the story of "Tanaav" is set in Kashmir.
In the second season, Kabir (Manav Vij) and the Special Task Group (STG) return to action when Fareed Mir aka Al-Damishq, a young man seeking vengeance, emerges as a formidable threat.
Mishra shares the directing duties for season two with E Niwas.
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