IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack casting director Mukesh Chhabra defends naming Muslim hijackers Bhola, Shankar in show

Amid demands by a section of social media users for the boycott of the series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack for allegedly hiding the real identities of the terrorists involved in the 1999 incident, casting director Mukesh Chhabra on Sunday claimed the perpetrators used nicknames for each other and proper research was done for the show. 

Directed by Anubhav Sinha, the series is based on the 1999 hijack of an Indian aircraft by five terrorists on December 24, 1999, 40 minutes after it took off from Kathmandu. IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack started streaming on Netflix on August 29.

Using hashtags #BoycottNetflix, #BoycottBollywood and #IC814, many X users shared posts claiming the makers changed the names of the hijackers to Shankar and Bhola to allegedly protect the terrorists who belonged to a certain community.

A user accused Anubhav of "deliberate distortion of facts" as well as termed the series "propaganda". "It is a vile attempt to rewrite history, downplay the terror inflicted by the actual hijackers, and subtly glorify their actions. By reducing the tragedy of IC 814 to a farcical narrative, Sinha has shown where his loyalties lie—not with the victims or the truth, but with an insidious agenda that seeks to whitewash the brutality of terrorism and vilify the Hindu community," the person wrote on X.

"Names of IC814 Hijackers changed to Shankar & Bhola by @anubhavsinha. This is how Bollywood let the TERRORISTS WIN: #BoycottBollywood #IC814TheKandaharHijack," wrote another. "IC 814 Terrorists names - Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. In Movie - Shankar & Bhola!" read a post.

Mukesh Chhabra, who worked as casting director for the Netflix show, said the terrorists used "nicknames or fake names" to address each other. "I am reading so many tweets about the names of the hijackers. We did the proper research. They used to call each other by those names—nicknames or fake names, whatever you want to call them. And thank you, everyone, for loving the ensemble cast. A big thank you to my team, and especially to Anubhav Sinha for trusting us and giving me the freedom to explore. #IC814 #Netflix," he wrote on X.

Five terrorists, Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhter and Sayed Shakir, hijacked the IC-814 plane during its flight from Kathmandu to Delhi on December 24 that year. At least 154 passengers and crew were held hostage for eight days, and the stand-off ended when hardcore terrorists Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar were released, and the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh took them on a special plane to Kandahar.

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack features Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Arvind Swamy, Dia Mirza and Patralekhaa, among others. The six-episodic mini-series is adapted from the book Flight into Fear: A Captain’s Story by Captain Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury. (With inputs from PTI)

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