No one will be able to forget the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in Afghanistan in 1999. Now, the gruesome incident which claimed the life of one newly married young man is being made into a film.
On Christmas eve in 1999, IC-814 bound to Delhi from Kathmandu carrying 189 passengers and flight crew, was hijacked by five armed terrorists. It later touched down in Western India, Pakistan, and United Arab Emirates before landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Except for one young man who was killed by the militants, all the others were rescued when the Indian Government agreed to yield to their demands of freeing three dreaded terrorists held captive in India. Erstwhile Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh went personally to Kandahar to hand over these prisoners to the hijackers and returned with the hostages. The hijackers were assured safe passage and since all this took place in Afghanistan which was then dominated by Taliban, who aided the hijack drama, nothing much could be done.
Now, Army Major-turned-director Ravi, who made films based on war like Aran (Tamil), Kargil (Malayalam), Mission 90 days (Malayalam) and Keerthichakra (Malayalam), has decided to make a film titled Kandahar based on this incident, which will feature Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal as commandos. Mr. Ravi says that this was decided when Kamal Haasan did an introductory voice-over in Aran starring Jiiva (aka Jeeva) and Mohanlal.
It is to be noted that Ravi headed the six-member National Security Guard Commando team that stormed into the house where Sivarasan, the mastermind behind Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, was hiding. Sivarasan committed suicide by consuming cyanide before the commandos could get him.
Commenting on his penchant of making films based on army and war, Major Ravi said, “It is not that I am obsessed with army or the blood and gore, but it is simply because I spent some ‘sensible time’ there.”
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