The latest web series from Netflix called “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack” has now gone viral and is currently trending in 42 countries at large, however, some people in India are angry due to historical inaccuracies.

The series, which recreated the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 in detail has sparked a healthy controversy on the portrayal of fact-based stories and more so the degree of freedom artists have towards dramatizing incidents of national security.

The show which has been produced and directed by eminent movie director Anubhav Sinha has been applauded for the way it captured the reality of the situation while at the same time been criticized for the part which portrayed the Indian version of the event as entirely negative.

The main problem pertains to the names of some of the hijackers, which are of Hindu origin: critics believe that such an approach distorts the picture and some audience could actually be misinformed about the identity of the terrorists.

This has resulted in several call for boycotts and even made the India Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to summon Netflix for clarification. However, or rather, in part due to such criticism, the series has gained attention internationally and people from all the countries eagerly wait to see how the drama resolves.

The show’s popularity proves the streaming services demand the Indian content and the audience tends to seek provocative topics. Netflix has deal with this by putting a notice that the events were inspired by true events but the show is a fictional dramatization.

This, however, has not entirely stopped the debate, and people are still discussing the roles of directors and other movie producers especially within social media platforms and news websites pertaining to responsibilities of producers when telling a historical story. That has also sparked newer debates regarding the 1999 hijacking incident and therefore, made people again aware of a critical juncture in Indian civil aviation and foreign policy.

Drawing international attention the show still goes on and raises pertinent issues such as the freedom of arts and license to history in the era of streaming services. The debate on “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack” is therefore a case of dramatization, history, and cultures’ clash in globalized world.