IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack: Who Is Rupin Katyal? The Only Casualty During The 1999 Hijack

IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack Who Is Rupin Katyal: Bollywood has always been intrigued with the idea of making films on real life stories or true events which often grab public interest. From Neerja, Maidaan, Kesari, Border, PadMan etc, several filmmakers have attempted this genre over the years and brought some true events on the big screen. And now Anubhav Sinha is making headlines for his upcoming release IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack which is also based on a true event and is set to release on August 29.

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack Real Story

For the uninitiated, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is based on the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999. For the uninitiated, the flight was enroute from Kathmandu to New Delhi. It was the longest hijack ever which lasted for seven days. The plane was landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan wherein the plan was under the control of Taliban. Reportedly, the plane was hijacked to secure the release of Islamist terrorists Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Masood Azhar and militant Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.

Who Is Rupin Katyal?

During the hijack, there was just one casualty - Rupin Katyal who was brutally murdered by Zahoor Mistry using a sharp instrument which was stabbed in his chest. For the uninitiated, Rupin and his wife Rachna Katyal were returning to Delhi post their honeymoon in Kathmandu. Reportedly, he was killed to pressurise the Indian government.

Photo Credit:

UPI

Who Is Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim?

To note, the airlines was hijacked by five militants and each one had a unique nick name Ibrahim Athar of Bahawalpur (Chief), Sunny Ahmed Qazi of Defence Area (Burger), Shahid Akhtar Sayed of Gulshan Iqbal area in Karachi (Doctor), Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim of Akhtar Colony (Bhola) and Shaqir from Sukkur (Shankar). It was Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim who had killed Rupin Katyal. He was gunned down in Karachi in 2022 by an unknown assailant.

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack Cast

Directed by Anubhav Sinha, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack features Vijay Varma in the role of pilot Devi Sharan, along with Patralekha playing the role of flight attendant Indrani, Dia Mirza as newspaper editor Shalini Chandra, Pankaj Kapur, Naseerudin Shah, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Arvind Swami, Anupam Tripathi, Amrita Puri, Kanwaljeet Singh, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Sushant Singh, Aditya Srivastava, Rajeev Thakur, and Yashpal Sharma