Based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, director Anubhav Sinha 's crime thriller drama miniseries ‘ IC 814 : The Kandahar Hijack ’ was widely praised, but it also caused controversy when some viewers claimed the show intentionally misrepresented the religious identities of the five terrorists involved in the incident. Even BJP leader Amit Malviya criticized the series on X (formerly Twitter), saying the creators had made sure viewers would "think Hindus hijacked IC-814" by giving the hijackers "non-Muslim" names. According to a Home Ministry statement dated January 6, 2000, which is accessible on the Ministry of External Affairs website, the terrorists from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group really utilized the code names that were used in the series.
The biggest part of Pakistan's intelligence community, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has been the subject of controversy and accusations that it has been whitewashed. Anubhav Sinha himself addressed these issues recently. In an interview with India Today, he was asked whether the show was giving the spy agency a clean chit in a scene where Osama bin Laden , the previous head of Al-Qaeda, throws a party for the hijackers without any ISI agents in attendance.
The interviewer framed this issue by pointing out that ISI's participation has been emphasized again and time again by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. "That really happened," Sinha said in response, demonstrating the accuracy of the events po.