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Why Anubhav Sinha, #BoycottNetflix Trending

The recent release of Netflix series directed by Anubhav Sinha has sparked considerable debate.

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Why Anubhav Sinha, #BoycottNetflix Trending

Why Anubhav Sinha, #BoycottNetflix Trending (image-instagram/anubhavsinhaa)

The recent release of the Netflix series “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack” directed by Anubhav Sinha has sparked considerable debate among netizens. A massive controversy was stirred on social media after the hijackers in the series were named ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’.

However, as per the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) records, those names (Bhola, Shankar, Chief, Doctor and Burger) were used by the hijackers while addressing one another during the incident.

On contrary to the official records, a group of netizens on social media is carrying out #boycott campaign against the series citing it to be anti-government.

The Netflix series is based on the real-life hijack incident of 1999, and netizens pointed out that the terrorists were identified as Muslim post the event.

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The six-episode show narrates the story of the longest hijacking in Indian history. The web show was adapted from the book titled Flight into Fear: A Captain’s Story. Though it received appreciation from critics, a section of users on social media cited the series as ‘pro-terrorist’ and ‘anti-government’ storytelling.

Here are a few comments bending the narratives on X. One among the users asked the director why he used Shankar and Bhola as the name of the hijackers. “Hello @anubhavsinha jb IC814 k sare Hijacker  Muslims the toh tumne Web series me Hijacker k nam Shankar aur Bhola kyu rkha hai?(EP-4)Aur ek nam Burger. Itna darr kyu hai tujhe?  Ye whitewash jo krne ki kosis ki hai usme success nhi ho payega Tu,” he wrote on X.

Another accusing the online streaming platform wrote, “#Netflix India become  fake story peddler pakistan militant sympathizer. 5 guys who #IC814TheKandaharHijack were Ibrahim Akhtar (frm Bahawalpur), Shahid Akhtar Sayeed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Mistry (frm Karachi) and Shakir (frm Sukkur). Netflix call them sankar & bhola.”

This is how whitewashing done cinematically,” another user wrote, while an X user commented, “Shame on @anubhavsinha for naming the hijackers as Shankar and Bhola! All the hijackers were Muslim terrorists..”

“Finally watched the IC814 series on Netflix by @anubhavsinha. Superbly done, captures nearly everything accurately. However the depiction of the newsroom was a tad unrealistic. I had just started reporting at NDTV covering this huge story and we had all hands on deck. Another minor quibble – how come the captain had no stubble after 8 days on a hijacked plane  but all in all, great story telling,” wrote Nidhi Razdan on X.
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Meanwhile, some of them came on pointing out that the names ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’ were used by the hijackers as codenamed during the operation and thus it should have been clarified in the show.

The series starring Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Patrelekhaa, Dia Mirza, and Arvind Swamy was released on August 29 on Netflix.

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Anubhav Sinha IC 814 Kandahar Kandahar hijack Netflix Series

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