Should Anubhav Sinha have highlighted real names of IC 814 terrorists? (2024)

In the critically acclaimed Hindi movie 'A Wednesday', Anupam Kher, playing the role of a retired police commissioner, recounts his confrontation with a commoner (Naseeruddin Shah) out to teach terrorists a lesson. In the closing scenes of the film, Anupam Kher meets Naseeruddin Shah and gets to know his name, refrains from revealing it to the audience, saying "Insaan naam me mazhab dhoond leta hai" (People look for religion in names).

A Wednesday was released in 2008, and after 15 years, a controversy over name and religion has hit a Netflix limited-series, IC 814 -- The Kandahar Hijack. In a strange coincidence, Naseeruddin Shah is also part of the new Netflix show, directed by Anubhav Sinha.

IC 814, the Netflix series, is based on a book by Devi Sharan, the Captain of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight, and tries to stay true to the actual events in 1999, when five terrorists diverted the Kathmandu-Delhi plane to Kandahar in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The five terrorists have been referred to in the IC 814 Netflix series with the code names they used during the hijacking -- Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola, and Shankar. It was the use of these aliases that sparked a controversy with people alleging that the director was trying to whitewash the facts, by concealing that the hijackers were all Muslims.

Shouldn't the filmmaker have highlighted the real names of the hijackers prominently, upfront? Is it possible to highlight the real names now? More importantly, should, and will, Anubhav Sinha revisit his stance, which could be more of an omission than of an act of commission.

What started as a heated debate on social media platforms snowballed into a massive controversy with even the BJP criticising the OTT series "for legitimising the criminal intent of the terrorists".

"The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists, who acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, legitimised their criminal intent by furthering their non-Muslim names. Result? Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814," posted Amit Malviya, BJP's IT cell head, on X.

The government moved in to address the controversy.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting directed Netflix India's content chief, Monika Shergill, to appear before it on Tuesday (September 2), to offer an explanation on the allegedly contentious aspects of IC 814 -- The Kandahar Hijack.

CONTROVERSY AS IC 814 TRIES TO STAY TRUE TO FACTS

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it was "really amusing to see the people who took movies like Kashmir Files as the gospel truth having a melt down at the way the events of IC814 are depicted in the Netflix show".

Slamming those who were questioning the Netflix series over the name-religion association, Abdullah said: "Now suddenly they want accuracy and nuance packaged in the script."

Anubhav Sinha's IC 814 has been received well in the cinematic aspects. The six-episode series has been getting favourable reviews, but for the controversy over the names.

Though Anubhav Sinha, the director, might have been trying to stick to facts, the question can obviously be asked if he couldn't have given out the real names of the hijackers when they appeared on-screen?

Nowhere, through the series, IC 814 -- The Kandahar Hijack, does the filmmaker attempt to highlight the real names of the terrorists, who in real life were from Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

A statement by the Union Home Ministry on January 6, 2000, confirmed the real names of the hijackers and where they were from.

Ibrahim Athar was from Bahawalpur, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, and Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim were from Karachi and Shakir was from Sukkur City.

Athar was addressed by other hijackers as Chief, Sayed as Doctor, Qazi as Burger, Ibrahim as Bhola and Shakir as Shankar.

"To the passengers of the hijacked place (sic) these hijackers came to be known respectively as Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar, the names by which the hijackers invariably addressed one another," according to the Home Ministry statement of 2000.

COULDN'T HAVE ANUBHAV SINHA MENTIONED THE REAL NAMES?

The names confirmed by the Indian government, Anubhav Sinha, could have highlighted them as and when the terrorists appear in the IC 814 series.

This is likely the case of plain oversight by the director.

It is difficult to preempt controversies surrounding films in India. No one knows where the lightning will strike.

The release of actor-politician Kangana Ranaut's movie, Emergency, has been postponed after the Censor board sought more cuts. This report came after the film saw protests by Sikhs.

Kangana, however, criticised content regulation on OTT platforms.

"Law of the land is that one can show unimaginable amount of violence and nudity on OTT platforms without any consequence or censorship; one can even distort real life events to suit their politically motivated sinister motives," she said on X.

IC 814 -- The Kandahar Hijack is a well-made series with a terrific star cast and deserves to run its course.

The controversy needs to be addressed too.

Something practical would be to edit and add the real names of the five hijackers. This would incur additional costs and take some time, but would likely kill the controversy surrounding the Netflix series.

Though there are practical ways out, will the filmmaker take the compromise route, and more importantly, should the filmmaker give in to the protests is the bigger question. Though there is a big issue over facts here, there is also the point of people looking for religious identities in names.