The Centre has summoned Netflix’s content head a day after a tweet by the BJP’s IT cell chief against a show on the streaming platform that has offended the Right-wing ecosystem.

An information and broadcasting ministry source confirmed that Monika Shergill, content head for Netflix in India, was expected to meet officials on Tuesday to answer queries on Anubhav Sinha’s six-episode web series, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.

The show is a fictionalised account of the 1999 hijack of an Indian Airlines Kathmandu-Delhi flight, which was taken to Kandahar and led the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to release Masood Azhar and two other terrorists in a trade-off for the hostages.

Many social media users have called for a boycott of the series on the ground that it gives Hindu names to the hijackers, who were actually Muslims. Reports by a section of the media too have claimed that the show has swapped the religious identities of the hijackers.

People associated with the series have clarified that the Hindu names by which the hijackers address one another in the show are the actual pseudonyms used by the real hijackers. The series elsewhere does make the hijackers’ Muslim identity plain.

On Sunday night, the BJP’s national IT department head and Bengal co-in-charge, Amit Malviya, tweeted: “The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists, who acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, legitimised their criminal intent, by furthering their non-Muslim names.

“Result?

“Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814.

“Left’s agenda to whitewash the crimes of Pakistani terrorists, all Muslims, served. This is the power of cinema, which the Communists have been using aggressively, since the 70s. Perhaps even earlier.

“This will not just weaken/put in question India’s security apparatus in the long
run, but also shift the blame away from the religious cohort, that is responsible for all the bloodshed.”

Contrary to Malviya’s claim, there is a notable dialogue in the show that questions the Islamism of the hijackers. The series also depicts the differences within the power blocs in Taliban-run Afghanistan, one of which is shown as being in cahoots with the hijackers.

Actor Vijay Varma and director Anubhav Sinha during an interview with PTI, in New Delhi. PTI

That the hijackers only used their aliases on the flight, and were referred to by the passengers as such, finds mention in then Union home minister L.K. Advani’s statement of January 6, 2000, available on the external affairs ministry site.

Most of the characters in the series — such as the Indian ministers and officials — have been given fictionalised names.

Veteran actor Pankaj Kapur’s character, which resembles late foreign minister Jaswant Singh, is shown as a hands-on cabinet member who is tied down by indecision in the government.

Manoj Pahwa’s character, which resembles current national security adviser Ajit Doval — who was the chief negotiator with the hijackers — is shown as a trigger-happy comedian.

Director Sinha, and Netflix’s Shergill did not respond to requests seeking their comment.

OTT platforms currently do not require certification from India’s censor board, and there have been attempts by the Narendra Modi government to bring them under a more stringent regulatory mechanism.

BJP leaders and the larger Hindutva ecosystem have often accused platforms like Netflix and Prime Video of pushing an anti-India and anti-Hindu narrative, and these platforms have reportedly backed off from some daring films.

Referring to a draft bill to regulate online content — which was privately circulated before being shelved — lawyer and Internet Freedom Foundation co-founder Apar Gupta tweeted: “It seems the Ministry of I&B has not learnt from the embarrassment of the Broadcasting Bill, 2024.”

Some Opposition politicians have suggested that the real reason the BJP and its supporters are furious at the series is its portrayal of the then NDA government as
a bungling dispensation that mismanaged the entire episode.

The then government erred in allowing the hijacked flight, which first landed in Amritsar to refuel, to leave India, they say. It then found itself forced to release dreaded terrorists who went on to form the Jaish-e-Mohammed, an outfit accused of several strikes on India including the attack on Parliament (2001) and those in Uri (2016) and Pulwama (2019).

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “It’s really amusing to see the people who took movies like Kashmir Files as the gospel truth having a melt down at the way the events of IC814 are depicted in the Netflix show. Now suddenly they want accuracy & nuance packaged in the script.”