New Delhi: Netflix has unveiled a teaser for its upcoming limited series, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, set to premiere on August 29. The series, created by Anubhav Sinha and Trishant Srivastava, shows the harrowing events of December 24, 1999, when Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 was hijacked and taken to Kandahar.
The gripping series is set over seven days, capturing the dramatic and high-stakes events that occured. Starring Vijay Varma, Patralekhaa, Pankaj Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Arvind Swami, and Dia Mirza, the show promises to offer a deep dive into the hijacking’s know-all and the struggles faced by the passengers and crew. The cast also includes Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Amrita Puri, Anupam Tripathi, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Pooja Gor, Kanwaljit Singh, Aditya Srivastava, Sushant Singh, and Yashpal Sharma.
The teaser starts with a bunch of Indian passengers getting ready to take off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal for a flight back home to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. Vijay Varma, who plays the pilot Sharan Dev here, asks the passengers to sit back and relax, before five masked militants put him on gunpoint, assault the air hostess, and hijack the flight, much to the terror of everyone.
The teaser then shows us that it’s not just any hijack, but the fate of an entire country is at stake. Indian government officials at various positions – played by Pankaj Kapur, Dia Mirza, Manoj Pahwa, and Naseeruddin Shah – spring to action back in New Delhi. The passengers are at a larger threat as they’re being flown to Kandahar in Afghanistan, then under the control of the Taliban.
IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is set to offer an immersive and dramatic portrayal of one of aviation’s most challenging incidents, with a focus on both the human and procedural aspects of the crisis.
An Indian aircraft IC 814 was hijacked on its way from Nepal to New Delhi in 1999 by a group of five masked Pakistani militants, who were members of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). They ordered the flight to be taken to multiple locations, and eventually to Kandahar, then controlled by the Taliban. Without giving potential spoilers, the outcome of that hijack changed the course of terrorism in India completely.
