As it turns out, two of the hijackers were indeed referred to as Bhola and Shankar. The series is inspired by the book 'Flight Into Fear' written by Capt Devi Sharan who was in charge of the flight on that fateful day. The pilot ensured the safety of the passengers by following the instructions of the hijackers in high-pressure situations. 

Some netizens have been irked by the use of the names and accused Sinha of spreading a false narrative and called it an attempt to defame Hinduism. However, fact-checkers have pointed out that as per the Ministry of External Affairs website, these were the actual code names used according to accounts shared by passengers. 

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Netflix content head summoned by Ministry

Amid massive outrage over the show, the content head of OTT platform Netflix has been summoned on September 3 by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The names of the hijackers has triggered a row on social media over the depiction of the hijackers.

In the OTT series, the five hijackers of the flight from Kathmandu are referred to as Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar.

"I vividly remember IC-814. I was very aware of that accident and very involved in following that. Every man and woman in India and indeed in South Asia knows that the hijack of IC-814 from Kathmandu was committed by Pakistan's ISI-backed terrorists. Now, nobody thinks that there were some people from India who did the hijacking. So how the people have Hindu names in that movie, I don't know. But I'm very happy that the I&B Ministry and the GoI have taken cognizance of this and have summoned Netflix" BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

About ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ 

IC-814 was hijacked by five terrorists on December 24, 1999, 40 minutes after it took off from Kathmandu. The aircraft carrying about 180 passengers remained hostage for seven days and flew from Kathmandu to Amritsar and then to Lahore. It was re-fuelled in Lahore and left for Dubai. From Dubai, it went to Taliban-controlled Kandahar, where all the passengers were released on December 31, 2000. It is adapted from the book "Flight Into Fear" by Captain Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury.

Vijay Varma, Arvind Swami, Dia Mirza, Pooja Gor, Patralekhaa, Amrita Puri, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Anupam Tripathi, Kanwaljeet Singh, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Sushant Singh, Aditya Srivastava, Rajeev Thakur and Yashpal Sharma are a part of the show.