Netflix India content head meets I&B Secretary over webseries ‘IC814: The Kandahar Hijack’ row

Netflix India’s content head Monika Shergill on Tuesday met Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sanjay Jaju here, amid a row over the web series ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’.

The meeting at Jaju’s office here lasted for about 40 minutes during which the OTT platform official was apprised of the sentiments expressed by a large section of the society and the need to be sensitive while handling such topics.

Voicing concern over the depiction of terrorists in the web series, a senior official has said nobody has the right to play with the sentiments of the nation.

The depiction of hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Delhi has stirred controversy with a section of viewers objecting to the ‘humane’ projection of the perpetrators.

“Nobody has the right to play with the sentiments of the people of this nation. Indian culture and civilisation should always be respected,” another official source said.

“Should we allow any foreign people to slipshod over our cultural values,” the source said without elaborating.

The sources said filmmakers have to think before portraying something in a wrong manner. “You may be liberal, but you cannot portray institutions in a wrong manner,” the source said.

Using hashtags #BoycottNetflix, #BoycottBollywood and #IC814, several X users shared posts claiming the filmmakers changed the names of the hijackers to ‘Shankar’ and ‘Bhola’ to allegedly protect the terrorists who belonged to a certain community.