Kandahar series row: ‘Show factual, one hijacker celebrated my birthday,’ says survivor
Pooja Kataria, who was aboard the hijacked plane, said the series is based on real events and names of hijackers mentioned in it are factual
Amid the row over Netflix’s latest series IC-814 Kandahar Hijack, one of the survivors aboard the Indian Airlines flight that was hijacked in 1999, has claimed that the show is based on a real event and the names of the hijackers are factual.
The series, despite garnering roaring reviews, is facing massive criticism from a section of viewers over the portrayal of the hijackers and the usage of code names to identify them.
Survivor recounts experience
“I don’t know why people are making a controversy…this is based on a real event and the names were also factual,” said Pooja Kataria, one of the 189 people who was aboard the hijacked plane, in an interview with ANI.
Viewers have alleged that the makers of the series deliberately skipped the real names of the hijackers and used only their code names to conceal their identities and gave a humane touch to some of them. They were also upset that Hindu names like ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’ were given to the terrorists
‘Burger celebrated my birthday’
Asserting that what was shown in the series was true, Kataria said, “One hijacker, caller ‘Burger’ celebrated my birthday and gifted me his shawl. Another, ‘doctor’, used to give speeches on Islam when we were on the plane and seemed to be an intelligent individual.”
The character of Burger, portrayed as the friendliest of the hijackers, is called ‘Burger bhai’ by the passengers in the series.
“We were returning from Nepal when the plane was hijacked. There were 176 passengers on the flight…there were five hijackers. We were all scared and didn’t have any idea of what was happening. We were given nothing to eat, except a small apple,” Kataria said.
Netflix tweaks disclaimer
After being summoned by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Netflix India updated the real names of the militants along with the code names in the disclaimer.
Earlier, Anil Sharma, who was a steward on the flight, in an interview with IANS said that the scenes in the web-series were fictional and the names ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’ were not real.