 "‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’: Netflix India’s content head summoned by government after accusations of changing terrorists’ identities in the show")
The content head of the streaming giant Netflix Monica Shergill has been summoned by the Union government after social media users accused the makers of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack for changing the identities of the terrorists that hijacked the flight on December 24, 1999.
Amid demands by a section of social media users for 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. It started streaming on Netflix from 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 Sinha of “deliberate distortion of facts” as well as termed the series “propaganda”.
“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, a prominent casting director in the industry, 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.
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