Netflix content head summoned by IB Ministry over IC-814 web series controversy

I&B Ministry summons Netflix content head: The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has summoned the content head of popular video streaming platform Netflix over the controversy surrounding IC-814 The Khandahar Hijack web series that arrived on the platform recently. The six-episode web series has triggered a row over the depiction of hijackers. As per reports, The Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials summoned the Netflix official seeking clarification on the contentious aspect of the web series.

For the unversed, the IC-814 The Khandahar Hijack web series has triggered a row on social media for reportedly whitewashing the facts and deliberately changing the names of two of the terrorists to 'Bhola' and 'Shankar'. The I&B Ministry is also seeking an explanation for the representation of these terrorist figures in the web series on Netflix.

The depiction of the terrorists in the web series has not only invited the wrath of netizens who are using hashtags such as #BoycottNetflix and #IC814 to slam the makers of IC-814 The Khandahar Hijack but also of politicians. Slamming the Netflix series, BJP's head of IT department, Amit Malviya, said that filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has legitimised the criminal intent of the hijackers.

"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," Malviya wrote in a post on X.

"This will not just weaken / put in question India’s security apparatus in the long run, but also shift the blame away from the religious cohort, that is responsible for all the bloodshed," he added in his post.

IC-814 The Khandahar Hijack is a web series on Netflix that chronicles the hijack of the Indian Airlines flight 814 in 1999. The web series has been directed by Anubhav Sinha and it stars noteworthy Bollywood actors including Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma and Dia Mirza.