: Near the end of Anubhav Sinha's mini-series , after the hijack crisis is resolved, four main characters gaze at the hijacked plane. Manoj Pahwa's character comments, "At least we fought," to which Arvind Swami's character retorts, "Did we?" We have seen films and shows where a hero valiantly controls a flight hijack situation, fighting off the hijackers and saving the day. Even the real-life Kandahar crisis - the inspiration for - has inspired a few Hindi films like , and the recent .
However, in real-life airline hijack situations, there is no action hero to save the day, just more political and strategic complications and tragic repercussions. The hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 in December 1999—considered a dark chapter in both Indian aviation and political history—is a perfect example of this. .
You know the story by now. IC-814, a flight operating from Kathmandu to New Delhi, is hijacked by terrorists linked to the ISI, who force the pilot to divert the plane to Kabul, Afghanistan. Due to fuelling issues, the plane is first forced to land in Amritsar, then in Lahore, Pakistan, and at Dubai airport before being rerouted to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
: Anubhav Sinha's details the seven days of this hijack crisis - part fictional, part real-life dramatisation, with people's names changed. The show takes place in four major settings: the hijacked flight piloted by Captain Sharan Dev (Vijay Varma); the war room where Indian intelligence heads and Union Minister of E.