Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut has weighed in on the ongoing controversy surrounding the Netflix series “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.” The series, which depicts the harrowing events of the December 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight, has sparked a heated debate over the portrayal of the hijackers’ identities.
Ranaut shared a post by BJP leader Amit Malviya on X (formerly Twitter), expressing her disappointment over the alleged distortion of facts in the series. Malviya’s post criticized director Anubhav Sinha for changing the Muslim names of the real-life hijackers to non-Muslim names, claiming this act serves a left-wing agenda to “whitewash” the crimes committed by Pakistani terrorists.
Malviya’s post read, “The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists who acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimized their criminal intent by furthering their non-Muslim names. Result? Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814.” He further stated that such portrayals could weaken India’s security narrative and shift the blame away from the actual perpetrators.
Ranaut echoed Malviya’s sentiments, highlighting the censorship challenges she faced with her upcoming film, “Emergency,” compared to the perceived freedom given to projects with allegedly distorted facts on OTT platforms. “It’s demotivating to see projects with alleged distorted facts run without censorship on OTT while projects like my film, Emergency, face censorship hurdles,” she wrote. She criticized what she sees as a double standard in censorship, where nationalist narratives are restricted while content she perceives as anti-national is freely broadcasted.
The controversy has prompted a strong response from Netflix, which has been summoned to New Delhi to address the issue. Social media has been abuzz with criticism since the series’ release last week, particularly regarding the change of the hijackers’ names from their real names—Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny, Ahmad Qazi, Zahoor Mistry, and Shakir—to fictionalized names like Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger, and Chief.
Neelesh Misra, the writer of the book on which the series is based, defended the decision to change the names, stating that the hijackers had used aliases during the hijacking. He emphasized that these were the names the hijackers called each other and the names by which the passengers referred to them during the ordeal.
Kangana’s comments come amid the reported delay of her film “Emergency,” which she has claimed is struggling to receive certification from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The actress, known for her outspoken views, continues to voice her frustration over what she sees as a biased approach to film censorship in India.
