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Director Anubhav Sinha’s debut streaming series, the crime thriller drama IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, has received positive reviews and gained worldwide attention. Based on the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 (IC 814) in December 1999, during which the plane was flown to several locations before landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Netflix show is adapted from the book “Flight Into Fear: The Captain’s Story,” penned by Captain Devi Sharan, who was the pilot of the flight at the time of the hijacking, and journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury.
Sinha, who thought he knew everything about the hijacking of IC 814, recently noted that as the research for the Netflix show began, he realised how little he actually knew about it. “When the research started and we had Adrian (one of the co-writers Adrian Levy) on board, it started opening up, not only within India but in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Washington and everywhere. Then I realized that I didn’t know anything about it. That became the driving force to dive in deeper and deeper,” Sinha said during a chat with Variety. The series stars Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Dia Mirza, Arvind Swamy, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Aditya Srivastava and Patralekha Paul in key roles.
Discussing the challenges and opportunities of working on a streaming series, the director noted that while creators must be constantly aware that the show will largely be viewed on laptops, tablets and mobile phones — posing potential limitations in visual detail — the format also offers flexibility. “We did not have any number of episodes fixed when we were writing. So you can take as much time as the story needs,” he added.
“Ewan [Mulligan, the cinematographer alongside Ravi Kiran Ayyagari] asked me a very important question. He asked, ‘Anubhav, are we recreating what happened?’ I said, ‘No, the event is happening again. We are sending our cameras and crew back there in time,’” the helmer noted, adding, “I truly believe the more authentic, more local you make it, the more appealing it becomes, because that’s a taste that they have never had. I was trying to be as true to the material as possible.”
In her review of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote, “The Vijay Varma-Naseeruddin Shah-Pankaj Kapur show keeps it grounded, even when it’s in the air, and manages to distribute the tension evenly throughout.” The publication’s Rohan Naahar, on the other hand, called IC 814 “the best Indian show of the year” in his Post Credits Scene column, noting, “Anubhav Sinha’s monumental Netflix series, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, owes about as much to the Jason Bourne movies as it does to the satirical sitcom Ji Mantriji.”
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