Indian government summons Netflix content head over series on 1999 Kandahar hijack

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has summoned Netflix content head Monika Shergill over controversy around the recent series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack which is currently available on their platform.

The series is loosely based on the 1999 hijack of the Indian aircraft IC 814 by five terrorists.

The makers of the series faced the wrath of netizens who claimed the names of the hijackers were deliberately changed to “Bhola” and “Shankar”.

A government source told an Indian news channel that it is taking the matter very seriously and added that “nobody has the right to play with the sentiments of people of this country”.

“Nobody has the right to play with the sentiments of people of this nation. India’s culture and civilisation should always be respected. You should think before portraying something in a wrong manner. The government is taking it very seriously,” a highly-place source told NDTV.

The series is directed by Anubhav Sinha and written by Adrian Levy and Trishant Srivastava.

Produced by Sarita Patil and Sanjay Routray under Matchbox Shots and Benaras Mediaworks, it stars an ensemble cast led by Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza and Arvind Swamy.