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Vijay Varma, who portrayed Captain Devi Sharan in IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, recently interviewed the real Captain Sharan. The web show, directed by Anubhav Sinha, is based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814. During their conversation on Netflix’s YouTube channel, Sharan shared his harrowing experience with the hijackers, describing one as a relatively lenient intermediary and another as particularly brutal. He also revealed that, after a week of intense negotiations, one hijacker broke down and hugged him.
Regarding the intermediary hijacker, Sharan explained, “One of the hijackers named Burger. The one who had flight simulation training. He was functioning as a PR. For instance, if one hijacker hit a passenger then he would come in between and would make both the hijacker and the passenger understand. He and I shared a certain wavelength. Like if I had to communicate something, I would approach him and he was always ready.”
When asked about the most dangerous hijacker, Sharan identified him as Shankar. “Most dangerous was a hijacker named Shankar. He always looked like he would kill anytime,” Sharan said.
The Indian Airlines Flight was en route from Kathmandu to Delhi when it was hijacked. After flying over Lahore and Dubai, and making a brief halt in Amritsar, it landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the negotiations with the Indian government started. Captain Devi Sharan was trapped in the aircraft with the passengers for 7 days. When asked if he interacted with other passengers during this time, he revealed, “After 1-2 days I was allowed to sit with passengers and I would talk to passengers near the gate in installments and would explain to them how to open the gate in case the hijackers would start shooting inside the flight so that the shoot would come out and everybody could slide down. But I would never let hijackers know what I am talking to these passengers.”
Addressing speculations that the hijackers became more lenient over time, Sharan said, “They didn’t get everything they wanted during the negotiations. Our negotiators kept working day and night for 3-4 days that definitely affected them. The chief hijacker on the 5 or 6th day hugged me and cried. Now everybody knows that the one person they demanded to be released from jail in India was the brother of the chief hijacker. He told me, ‘What’s my brother’s fault?’ You can understand that he needn’t cry in front of me. He was a very emotional guy that way. But they also knew that they had to get their work done and they were firm about it.”
In the series, the hijackers are referred to as their aliases Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola, and Shankar. According to a statement by the Union Home Ministry on January 6, 2000, the real names of the hijackers were Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, and Shakir.
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