‘He told me he was very happy to see the realistic portrayal of the cockpit too.’
‘His wife told me that I carried the same kind of personality as her husband in my performance.’

IMAGE: Vijay Verma in IC 814: The Kandahar Attack. Photograph: Kind courtesy Vijay Verma/Instagram

In our cinema, the louder and more aggressive performances get noticed more. But Vijay Verma chose to remain restrained in the Web series, IC 814: The Kandahar Attack.

“When the camera is this close to you at all times, doing anything extra can be magnified and would kill the moment for the viewers. I wanted to stay true to my thoughts and feelings without the need to ‘perform’. I just had to be there, doing my job as a pilot,” he tells Subhash K Jha.

IMAGE: Vijay Verma with Captain Devi Sharan. Photograph: Kind courtesy Vijay Verma/Instagram

Vijay plays Captain Devi Sharan, the commander of the Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 which was hijacked by five Pakistani terrorists on Christmas eve 1999.

“When I met Captain Sharan, I saw a very dignified, soft-spoken individual. It was my responsibility to portray him in his light. And yes, flamboyance and aggression has its own charm and takers. I’ve played some of those. But it’s often the unspoken and unexpressed part of characters that strikes the chord with other people,” he says.

“I did everything that was written in the script. There were no improvisations per se. I didn’t do much research but I observed and practised the work of a pilot extensively. I didn’t want to look like a noob.”

IMAGE: Vijay Verma in IC 814: The Kandahar Attack. Photograph: Kind courtesy Vijay Verma/Instagram

Vijay was bowled over by his co-stars, like Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah, Arvind Swamy and Dia Mirza.

“Just to be part of such an illustrious cast was an honour and I will cherish it all my life. The real life Captain Sharan praised me for the work. He told me he was very happy to see the realistic portrayal of the cockpit too. His wife told me that I carried the same kind of personality as her husband in my performance. It required a lot of participation from me.

“I got some time prepping for it at the flight simulation centre and through that, I realised the technical nature of the job and the extensive focus it requires. I used that training as a base to carry out the entire series’ performance. The green screen at shoot didn’t help either but I could use my imagination to create the tension.”

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Needless controversy over OTT series??, says Kandahar plane hijack survivor

IMAGE: Rajiv Thakur, Kamal Batra and Vijay Verma in IC 814: The Kandahar Attack.

Meanwhile, a survivor of the nightmare of the 1999 hijack named Pooja Kataria has her say on the row over the depiction of code names of hijackers in the series and calls it ‘needless’.

Kataria was then returning from her honeymoon in Kathmandu, and said, “I have seen it. The controversy which is going on is needless. There is nothing like this, the true event has been depicted and they (hijackers) had code names and used to call each other using those names.”

She recalled how a hijacker with code name ‘Burger’ talked to the passengers, played Antakshari and gifted her a shawl when he came to know it was her birthday.

“He was friendly with the people as they were having panic attacks. He even played Antakshari,” she said.

The Web series has courted controversy with many claiming that Director Anubhav Sinha changed the names of the hijackers to ‘Shankar’ and ‘Bhola’ to allegedly protect the terrorists who belonged to a certain community.

The real names of the hijackers were Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny, Ahmad Qazi, Zahoor Mistry and Shakir. However, the series referred to the code names used by the terrorists — Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger and Chief.

Kataria, 47, while recalling the harrowing events which unfolded after the plane was hijacked on December 24, 1999, 40 minutes after it took off from Kathmandu, said the hijackers addressed each other using their code names.

“I think it should be seen from the entertainment point of view only. Other movies are also made. There is no need for controversy,” she said.

Recalling the events on that fateful day, Kataria said, “There was fear and we thought we all will die. We did not know what was happening outside. We were asked to keep our heads down for two days, we lived in that state of terror for eight days. Only when we came out did we realise what had happened.”

Kataria recalled it was her birthday then.

“It was my birthday and I told him (the hijacker) that he should leave us. He said we will celebrate my birthday here. Burger gifted a shawl to me…,” she said, showing the shawl she has preserved. ‘To my dearest sister and her handsome husband’ is written over it and signed by Burger.

“I have preserved the boarding passes also,” Kataria said.

With inputs from PTI.