On September 3, Monika Shergill, Vice-President, Content, Netflix India, met members of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) regarding the controversy surrounding IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack. The I&B Ministry had summoned her, citing concerns over the hijackers’ portrayal in the Vijay Varma-led series that retells the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 from Kathmandu. In the show, two hijackers are shown using aliases Bhola and Shankar, which drew the ire of a section of the population.  

An insider from the streamer’s team told mid-day that creator Anubhav Sinha and his team had relied on extensive research at the development stage. The source said, “The writers and researchers had gathered information from credible sources, including official documents available in public domain. They also referred to a Home Ministry statement from January 6, 2000, that was available on the Ministry of External Affairs website. In the statement, [it was made clear] that Shankar and Bhola were indeed the code names used by the hijackers. The intention was never to hurt religious sentiments. The internal legal team looked into this at the early stages of development and passed it. Ahead of the meeting with the I&B Ministry, they prepared a comprehensive set of documents to support their depiction, emphasising that these aliases were not invented by the creative team, but were part of the record.”