Anubhav Sinha: ‘Halfway into proposing the role, Naseer said yes’

The limited series offers a retelling of the 1999 hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight 814

Getting acting heavyweights like Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah, Arvind Swami, Manoj Pahwa and Kumud Mishra in one room can be an uphill task. Anubhav Sinha is surprised that the stellar cast - which includes Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza and Patralekha - has come together for his maiden series, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack. The upcoming thriller traces the 1999 hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight 814, in which a group of militants hijacked the Delhi-bound aircraft carrying 173 passengers and flew to several locations before landing in Kandahar.

Kapur reunites with Sinha after Bheed

Sinha knew his working relationship with Kapur, developed on Dus (2005) and Bheed (2023), would give him an advantage. "Pankaj bhai said, ‘Main nahin karunga,' but I knew he would," says the filmmaker, who has co-created, co-written and directed the thriller. Despite his faith in the material, Sinha was skeptical about getting the nod from Shah and Swami. He was pleasantly surprised on both occasions. "I had thought it would be difficult to cast Naseer bhai because he does less work and is more interested in doing theatre. I was halfway into proposing the role to him, and he said yes. As for Arvind, we got on a conference call, and he said, ‘Okay.' But I was [still unsure] whether he was doing it. But how do you ask [again] if the person has said okay?" he laughs.

Anubhav Sinha

Varma, who plays the pilot flying the ill-fated aircraft, also said yes more easily than Sinha had assumed. The director recalls, "When he left [the meeting], I thought we'd send him the script, he would read it and tell us if he wanted to do it. But two hours later, they were already talking dates. I wasn't on such terms with him that I could call and say, ‘Script toh bheji nahin maine!'"

When Netflix approached Sinha to retell the story of the Kandahar hijack, he realised he was unaware of many details of the chapter. That motivated the director to probe further. "The plane landed in Kandahar on the morning of December 25, the Indian negotiation team reached on December 26. On a conversation level, you'd say, ‘Why did it take them [so long] to reach?' But there was so much going on at home. [They] had to know what they could offer. There were moral, ethical and political questions that the government was dealing with."

The series shows the attack could have been averted. So, have we learned from history? "The human mind doesn't learn from history; we make it worse. Nine months after this, 9/11 happened. So, that was the time when militants were toying with the idea of using an aircraft as a weapon. So, one has to think ahead of them and make sure this doesn't happen again. But [such events] are still happening."