During the hijacking of IC 814, the terrorists used aliases or code names
such as “Burger”, “Doctor”, “Chief”, “Bhola” and “Shankar”. As per historical record, the names of the terrorists were: Ibrahim Athar (alias Chief), Shahid Akhtar Sayed (alias Doctor), Sunny Ahmed Kazi (alias Burger), Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim (alias Bhola), Shakir (alias Shankar).

The above lines were added to the disclaimer of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, the Netflix thriller directed by Anubhav Sinha, following the uproar over the terrorists’ Hindu names.

I meet the director virtually one winter afternoon, a few days after the series was adjudged one of the most popular shows of 2024. Sinha is in his Mumbai office. He is wearing his fancy blue thick-rimmed spectacles, and is visibly happy. He reads from a document — “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack has been a phenomenal success for Netflix, trending in the Weekly Top 10 across 42 countries and achieving the #2 spot in the Global Top 10 Non-English TV rankings, a remarkable feat for Indian storytelling...”

However, IC 814 also raised a cacophony of criticism. Accusations of inaccuracies, of showing the hijackers in a less ruthless light, of linking the hijack vaguely to the al-Qaeda and Afghanistan, of being “an expensive PR job for the ISI”.

Sinha responds to each question calmly. “Of course, the series says it was an ISI operation. Several times, explicitly. The opening sequence is all about ISI planning something horrid... There are several other mentions during the entire series.” As for the hijackers, the depiction is based on Captain Devi Sharan’s account in Flight Into Fear. “I trust the Captain knew best of the goings on inside the aircraft,” he says.

But why did Netflix add to its disclaimer when all of that is fact? “I had no problem with it,” he says. “If somebody has felt offended, putting a small line shouldn’t be a big thing.” That’s all.

For someone who has churned out films such as Article 15, Thappad and Mulk, this one seems to hold a special place. “It released on August 29 and within two or three days, people started telling me that this is probably your best… there was so much love coming in. But more than anything, we were happy we ended up making exactly what we wanted, of exactly the quality we had hoped for. Because technically, it was a challenging series to make.”

Ask him to explain the challenges and you see the director almost in action — hand movement, brows knitted, etc. “It’s a particular period in history. There are lots of specifics... Those five airports in four different countries needed a whole lot of production design. Even the Airbus A300 is no longer in use. There was only one in Jordan that we could get hold of. It’s grounded and is — ironically — used for anti-hijack exercises. Kandahar is a unique terrain but you can’t shoot there.”
Not many know that that part was shot in Aqaba in Jordan.

How did he source information on what was going on within the Delhi offices? “You read material from the time, you speak to journalists from the time... Also, I met some bureaucrats from the time. I don’t know if I should name them; I don’t have their permission.”

The series, as Sinha says, goes beyond the Captain’s book. “I was unaware of so many things. Back in 1999, I did not relate to it in a very emotional manner. As I started reading, it became more and more fascinating.” Sinha wrote the script with Trishant Srivastava and Adrian Levy. He continues, “The three of us sat down and opened it up. I started seeing it in the light of what was going on at that time. Kargil had happened, the coup in Pakistan happened. Even the Pokhran II test that happened a year and a half before had a role to play. Then lamps lit up...”

At this point, I broach the issue I had been dreading. For much of the time — especially the Amritsar episode — the Indian authorities looked foolish, confused, helpless, with no proper coordination between offices.

Sinha’s response: “I don’t think they looked foolish; they are almost groping in the dark. After having done my research, I don’t know what better they could have done. It could have been much worse. Those four people in Kandahar did a fantastic job. You must also remember that 18 months ago, there were diplomatic sanctions on India...” He adds, “America has made so many films on the FBI, CIA... we know more about those institutions than ours. The more I read, the more I felt that our agencies are among the best in the world but we don’t celebrate them.”

He talks about the final moments when the four officers are walking towards the plane to go back. “I shot them in a particular manner, in slo-mo. I saw them as heroes. What they ended up achieving was a big achievement.”

P.S. Sinha has been busy writing. He assures we will get to see it on screen soon. Shooting of IC 814 was complete by September 2023, and he seems in a hurry to don the director’s cap again. “I have not shot in 17-18 months,” he says.