Former Crew Member Anil Sharma

New Delhi: Amid the controversy surrounding the Netflix series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’, which tells the story of the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 by Pakistan-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in 1999, Anil Sharma, who was present in the hijacked Airbus aircraft as chief steward, and saw the series of events unfolding in front of his eyes, said on Tuesday that some of the scenes in the web series are fictitious.

After the series was released, several social media users accused its creators — Anubhav Sinha and Trishant Srivastava — of changing the names of two hijackers to ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’, thus hurting Hindu sentiments.

Interacting with IANS about the controversy, Mr Sharma said the names — Bhola and Shankar — of two hijackers presented in the web series are ‘imaginary’, and not their real names.

“That (actual identities) should have been highlighted. The intent of the makers of web series did not seem good to me. No crew member was injured or stabbed. The hijackers also never slapped any air hostess,” he told IANS.

Mr Sharma said that he realised the seriousness of the situation only after he and his colleague were asked to ‘handle a body’ (to dispose) at the Dubai airport. He was referring to a passenger who was stabbed by the hijackers.

“A lot of things have happened… and my remarks are not going to change anything,” he said.

Mr Sharma further said that though it is easy to criticise Jaswant Singh (then External Affairs Minister) over his role in the matter, the latter’s visit to Kandahar “made a positive impact”.

“However, India paid a heavy price after the release of three terrorists. A lot of terrorist attacks took place in India afterwards and Pakistani involvement was also there,” he said.

Mr Sharma also called for setting up a decision-making body over certain controversial scenes so that no provocation happens.

Stopping short of directly criticising the web series makers, he added that everything cannot be measured by profit-making parameters and the conscience should realise that “something wrong is being done”.

Earlier, facing flak from different quarters, Netflix India on Tuesday updated the opening disclaimer for the series to include the hijackers’ real as well as code names.

Monika Shergill, Netflix Vice President (Content, India), said in a statement: “For the benefit of audiences unfamiliar with the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, the opening disclaimer has been updated to include the real and code names of the hijackers. The code names in the series reflect those used during the actual event.”

On December 24, 1999, five hijackers took control of an Indian Airlines flight after it took off from Kathmandu en route to Delhi, and diverted it to Kandahar in Afghanistan after making landings in Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai.

The Indian government had to release three terrorists — Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Mushtaq Zargar — to secure the safe release of 154 hostages.

The Union Home Ministry in January 2000 revealed the real names of the hijackers – Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, and Shakir. The ministry also said during the hijacking, they referred to each other by code names — ‘Bhola’, ‘Shankar’, ‘Chief’, ‘Doctor’, and ‘Burger’.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)