Kandahar Hijack: News agency ANI sues Netflix for using PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pervez Musharraf’s footage without credit

Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha’s series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, featuring Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, and others, has faced legal trouble. News agency ANI has sued Netflix and the show’s creators for using their content in four episodes without permission. The agency has demanded the removal of these episodes.

According to a report by Bar and Bench, “ANI sues Netflix and makers of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack for alleged infringement of copyright and trademark. ANI says the show uses its footages showing the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and General Parvez Musharraf and terrorist Masood Azhar without licence.”

Reportedly, Delhi HC has issued a notice to Netflix and the show’s other producers. The matter will be heard on Friday.

Sidhant Kumar, counsel for ANI, said, “They have used copyright archival footage of ANI without licence, they have also used the (ANI) trademark. Since the series has come into such criticism, our trademark and brandname are being tarnished.”

Meanwhile, earlier, the series had sparked a major controversy over the ‘Hindu’ codenames of the hijackers. The series, which is based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814, uses Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’ as codename for the Muslim terrorists in the show. Several users claimed that it misrepresented the terrorists’ real identities.

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

The real names of the hijackers were Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny, Ahmad Qazi, Zahoor Mistry and Shakir. However, the series referred to the code names used by terrorists: Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger and Chief.

However, Netflix has added the real names of the terrorists with the disclaimer.

Also read: Netflix adds disclaimer, real names of terrorists amid IC 814 controversy

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack also features Pankaj Kapur, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Arvind Swamy, Dia Mirza, and Patralekhaa, among others.

(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement betweenThe Free Press JournalandConnected to India)