Pooja Kataria, a passenger on the 1999 hijacked IC-814 flight, cannot understand the outrage over the Netflix series based on the incident. Speaking to ANI, Kataria relived the horror of the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 and recalled how the passengers suffered panic attacks, were denied food and were asked to convert to Islam.

Still, the hijacking survivor says the Netflix show should be viewed for what it is: a series created for entertainment purposes.

Speaking to ANI, Kataria said, “We had just returned from Nepal when the plane was hijacked. There were 176 passengers on board. Just half an hour after takeoff, the plane was hijacked.”

“There were five hijackers on the plane. We were all scared and didn’t know where we were. We were given nothing to eat except a small apple a day,” Kataria recalls.

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Controversy over IC-814

“IC-814: The Hijacking of Kandahar” is a miniseries by Anubhav Sinha based on true events and recently released on Netflix.

The makers of the series faced severe criticism for allegedly changing the names of the kidnappers to “Shankar” and “Bhola.” Shankar and Bhola were code names that the kidnappers had adopted for themselves.

Pooja Kataria, one of the passengers on the doomed Indian Airlines Flight 814, says she cannot understand the outrage.

“I don’t know why people are creating such a controversy over the series. The series is based on a true event and the names of the kidnappers mentioned in the series are also true,” Kataria told news agency ANI.

“Bhola, Shankar were their names. They may be code names, but that’s what they called each other. We heard them,” Kataria said.

She continued: “One of the hijackers, whose name was Burger, celebrated my birthday on the hijacked plane and also gave me his scarf that day. Another hijacker, who claimed to be a doctor, gave speeches about Islam on the plane and seemed to be an intelligent person.”

Trends at Google

Since the release of the Netflix series on August 29 and the subsequent controversy over the names of the hijackers, interest in the 1999 kidnapping case has renewed. In the last 48 hours, Google Trends has seen searches for “IC 814 Kandahar hijacking Netflix” with a search volume of over 200,000.

The trend for IC 814 started rising on August 28th and peaked on September 3rd.

(with inputs from ANI)