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Anubhav Sinha, who started his career with long-form storytelling with television series like Sea Hawks (1997), is set to make his web series debut with Netflix’s IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack. The filmmaker, coming after a 27-year hiatus from television, promises to give a 360 degrees view of the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999. The six-episode thriller is adapted from the book “Flight Into Fear” by the plane’s Captain Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury. In an exclusive conversation with indianexpress.com, the Bheed (2023) director revealed how he became part of the show that was already being developed after producers Sarita Patil and Sanjay Routary bought rights to the book long ago.
The director also revealed how, as he dived deeper into the incident, he found fascinating details about the event that were not public knowledge despite the incident occupying both newspaper and mind space in India. “I was not at the genesis of the show. Before approaching me, Trishant Srivastava along with Sarita Patil and Sanjay Routary had made several drafts of it. It was offered to me in such a respectful manner that I couldn’t say no”, added the Mulk director.
Anubhav Sinha, who has also penned many of his projects like Ra One, Bheed, Mulk, and Article 15, said there was more to the story after he read the script. The 59-year-old said, “I thought I knew about the incident and then I read the script. I shouldn’t say I didn’t like it, but I thought we should do more with it. Thankfully, Netflix gave us that freedom. After this, Trishant and I went researching. We hired Adrian Levy, journalist, author, and filmmaker from England. The three of us then started jamming and that is when it started to take the shape it has now.”
Upon research, Anubhav Sinha and his team found quite intriguing details about the show. He revealed that as the hijacking dragged on, people onboard the plane played antakshari with the hijackers, and even hugged and exchanged numbers.
“The captain himself told me that one of the terrorists, who was nastiest of the lot and gave him a scar on his neck, came to the captain, hugged and apologised to him. The hijacker even told the captain, ‘Mai apke kisi kaam aa sakta hu toh batana ap’ (Let me know if you ever need any favour). The captain told me that the people were exchanging phone numbers. They were playing antakshari on the last day.”
According to the Thappad director, apart from the ordeal faced by the passengers and crew on the hijacked plane, the show starring Vijay Varma, Pankaj Kapur, Dia Mirza, Arvind Swamy, Naseeruddin Shah, and Patralekhaa, among others, will also showcase the tense negotiations in Delhi’s War Room and high-stakes diplomacy at Taliban-controlled Kandahar.
IC 814 created by Anubhav Sinha and Trishant Srivastava, is all set to stream on Netflix from 29 August. Directed by Sinha, the story is by Adrian Levy and Trishant. It is jointly produced by Sarita Patil and Sanjay Routray under the banners Matchbox Shots and Benaras Mediaworks.
IC814 hijacking
IC 814 was an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 en route from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, to Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, on 24 December 1999. The plane, piloted by 37-year-old Captain Devi Sharan and first officer Rajinder Kumar, was hijacked by five masked men shortly after it entered the Indian airspace. The aircraft, on the orders of the hijackers, was flown to a series of locations: Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai and finally Kandahar.
The motive for the hijacking was to secure the release of Islamist terrorists held in prison in India. The crisis lasted for seven days and ended after India agreed to release the three terrorists — HuM members Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Massod Azhar and a Pakistani-backed Kashmiri militant, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.
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