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Actor Vijay Varma, who plays the captain of a hijacked plane in the upcoming Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, spoke about the stories that he learned about his real-life counterpart while preparing for the role. Director Anubhav Sinha shared more anecdotes that he had gathered about the infamous incident from the late 1990s, as they discussed the show in a roundtable conversation featuring other cast members.
In the show, Vijay was cocooned inside a cockpit set for nearly 90% of his scenes. He said that he underwent a week-long training course in a flight simulator, which helped him visualise the terrain while performing against a green screen on set. Asked what, in his opinion, is the bravest thing that the pilot of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight did during the ordeal, Vijay highlighted the SOPs that have been put in place for situations like this. “To keep his cool, to buy time, and to make sure that the flight lands safely in all these conflicted areas… As per the SOPs, as a pilot, you’re supposed to follow the instructions of the hijackers. At the same time, he was trying to maneuver how he could influence them. He also used tactics to make sure that he doesn’t take of when they want him to. He bought time, at gunpoint,” Vijay said.
Anubhav mentioned that in his conversations with the pilot, Captain Devi Sharan, he learned that the biggest moment of relief for him came when he was able to land the aircraft in Amritsar. But the biggest moment of dejection was when he was made to take from Amritsar after 45 minutes. Anubhav continued, “He still has a mark on his neck, from where the hijackers had put the gun on him. It kept rubbing against his skin for so long that it left a mark, and the mark is still there.”
He also learned that the pilot flew at an altitude of 150-200 feet from Amritsar to Lahore, because the plane had run out of fuel. “It was just a 10-minute flight, but the plane didn’t have the fuel to gain altitude,” he said, recalling that the pilot threatened to land the flight on a highway, and it was only then that Lahore authorities gave them the green signal to touch down on Pakistani soil.
He continued, “I asked him, ‘What were you thinking when you decided to land on the highway?’ And he said, ‘I was prepared to land so that at least a few people survive, but I also felt that this threat might convince Lahore authorities to grant us permission to land at the airport’.”
What happened during IC 814 hijacking
The week-long IC 814 hijacking in December 1999 brought the nation to a standstill. Terrorists commandeered the plane after it took off from Kathmandu in Nepal, after which it landed in Amritsar, and then in Lahore. The flight then touched down in Dubai, and finally in Kandahar, where the negotiations took place. In the end, the hostages were released in exchange of three high-profile terrorists after a stand-off in Afghanistan. The show will be released on August 29.
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