Netflix is facing legal turbulence in India over its successful ‘IC 814’ Hijack series
Netflix is embroiled in a legal dispute with Asian News International (ANI) over the streaming giant’s hit series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’.
Directed by Anubhav Sinha, the drama is a fictionalized version of the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, which was en route from Kathmandu to New Delhi when it was diverted to Kandahar, Afghanistan. The series is currently number 2 on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Foreign Language Shows.
In a complaint filed in the Delhi High Court, the news agency alleges copyright infringement of archive material of ANI used in the series and wants four episodes of the six-episode show removed. Netflix declined to comment when contacted Variety because it is an ongoing legal matter. The court will consider the case on Friday.
The series has seen turbulence since it started streaming on August 29. Some social media users were outraged that the hijackers depicted in the series each bore Hindu names, despite being Muslims from Pakistan. A member of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). posted on X: “The hijackers of IC-814 were feared terrorists, who acquired aliases to conceal their Muslim identity. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimized their criminal intentions by promoting their non-Muslim names. Result? Decades later, people will think the Hindus hijacked IC-814.”
However, an explanation issued by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs in 2000 (India was under BJP rule from 1998 to 2004) which is available in the public domain confirms the Pakistani Muslim identity of the hijackers and states: “To the passengers of the hijacked place, these hijackers were respectively known as (1) Chief, (2) Doctor, (3) Civilian, (4) Bhola and (5) Shankar, the names by which the hijackers invariably addressed each other.’
To clarify the matter, Netflix has updated the disclaimer that comes before the show in India. “For the benefit of the public unfamiliar with the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, the opening disclaimer has been updated to include the real names and code names of the hijackers,” Netflix said.
The drama, based on the book ‘Flight Into Fear’ by Captain Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury, explores the crisis from multiple angles. It offers a multi-faceted look at the incident, covering the tense negotiations in Delhi’s War Room, the high-stakes diplomacy in Taliban-controlled Kandahar, and the terrifying ordeal faced by passengers and crew on board the hijacked plane , are highlighted.
This is the second time this year that Netflix has faced calls to remove Indian content from its service. In January, the Tamil-language film ‘Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food’, headlined by ‘Jawan’ actor Nayanthara, was pulled from Netflix after several complaints were received from Hindu groups, who filed complaints with the police alleging that the film would offend the religious sentiments of Hindus.
“The film has been removed at the request of the licensor,” a Netflix spokesperson said Variety at the time. The film has since resurfaced on streamer Simply South.
In 2021, Prime Video was forced to apologize for its original Indian series ‘Tandav’, parts of which had offended members of the ruling Hindu nationalist dispensation.
